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Saturday, August 16, Barcelona
After breakfast in the hotel we're off to Montserrat. We're brave and take the Metro to the train station. We have some trouble finding it but eventually we cross the square and go down an elevator to the underground station. By the time we get the tickets and get downstairs, we've missed the 11:36 train and have to wait an hour for the next one. It's very hot, like a sauna, in this subway. We sweat up a storm. Finally, we're on the train and on the way. Nancy is sitting across from a pair of men from the UK and they strike up a conversation about geo-politics. Fortunately, all involved are liberals. Republican Conservatives beware when overseas: Europeans don't like you and they're afraid of you. Bush is indeed widely despised, and overwhelmingly thought an idiot. Of course, Nancy wasn't about to disagree! We arrive at the Montserrat station and go into the office to take the cable car up to the monastery. Oops! The woman in the Barcelona train station sold us tickets for the cog train up, not the cable car. We've gotten off at the wrong station! We buy tickets to ride the cable car up, and OH WOW! What an incredible view! The air is cooler and we walk from the landing area up to the Basilica. The Romanesque church is magnificent inside and out. We see the inside and then walk around to the side entrance to see the medieval statue of La Moreneta: The Black Virgin, patron saint of Catalonia. We eat in the hotel restaurant right there (great gazpacho). And then we start walking down. We take the cog train down, and then connect to the train back to Barcelona. This time, as the boys, Harvey and Jacob play a word game; Nancy has a conversation with a very athletic woman who turns out to be a firefighter from Calgary, Alberta. She's in Barcelona for the World Police and Firefighter Games, their Olympics, so to speak, where she won the gold medal in the Toughest Competitor competition. She recommended some sights and a restaurant for us, and it was an enjoyable train ride back. When we arrived back at the station, we realize that we never needed to go above ground to change from the metro to the train! C'est la vie! We return with much less effort to Catalunya station. As we're reaching the last area around the stairs back up to ground level, we hear beautiful symphonic music. A group of string musicians are playing Mozart! They're from Moscow. We put a coin in their violin case and buy a CD. Back up to the Rambla and a jazz piano street performer. Over to the supermarket to get some fresh fruit for Jacob and some plastic wrap for Elliot's arm so he can properly shower. Jacob wants to stay behind for dinner, so the rest of the gang head off on their own. We see some live music on the street, and we go to the Quatre Gats, (4 Cats) which actually means, "almost no one". It was fantastic - the restaurant recommended by our Canadian firefighter. Picasso designed their first menu cover, and it's a pretty cool place. The food is excellent and reasonably priced. We walk back up La Rambla and suddenly someone tapped Nancy from behind and made her scream! It was Jacob! He walked around with Marcus and Elliot while Nancy and Harvey went upstairs to crash. |
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