Windsurfing battle wounds

Today we headed back over to Lac Bay to take our first windsurfing lesson. Neither Gavin nor I have ever done it before, and Lac Bay is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to do it. This is due to shallow, hip deep, warm water for at least a half mile from shore, constant strong winds that blow TOWARDS shore instead of out to sea, and the calm waters of the protected bay.

Windsurfing board and Jibe City's bar.

A windsurfer is ready to go!

Gavin learns the basics on the beach.

Hanna, our very blonde Dutch instructor, showed us how to get on the board and raise the sail all while standing comfortably on the beach. Didn't seem too hard. Then we walked out into the water and Hanna demonstrated all the moves in the water, then asked us to try. Gavin said before he even got on the board, "It looks pretty intuitive." Then he stepped crawled on the board and immediately fell into the water. I laughed at him and called out, "Intuitive, huh?" but I didn't fare any better. In fact, this handy animation shows about how my first hour of windsurfing went:


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Yes, both Gavin and I at first spent more time in the water than out of it. We got very little feedback, as the lesson was pretty much over the minute we got into the water. We then had an extra hour to mess around ourselves, and both of us managed to actually stay up on the board for longer times, but we realized quickly that Hanna had neglected to tell us how to STEER... If anyone came near me with their board I had no choice but to yell out "I'm sorry, I don't know how to turn!" I actually had a minor collision with an older guy and got so close to another guy that I made him fall off his board... Oops. I was one of those jerks... :D Also, the current and wind kept pushing us toward the "forbidden zone" next to shore with a lot of seaweed and, Hanna informed us, stinging sea creatures. So we had no choice but to jump off our boards and drag them back out to sea since we couldn't steer away from it. We were just seeming to partially get the hang of it, when Hanna came wading out and told us our time is up. So we dragged our boards back to shore and wandered over to The Beach Hut for lunch. At shore they encouraged us to sign up for the next level lesson, which would teach us how to steer. I guess they plan these things... :)

We had decided to definitely NOT go to Jibe City again for lunch since it was so expensive last time, so we walked a little farther down the beach to The Beach Hut. Sounds like a nice, cheap place, right? WRONG. I guess all the places on Lac Bay know they are the only game around for food and can charge pretty high prices... Gavin had a decent plate of ribs, and I "spicy" chicken salad. (so called "spicy.")

After lunch we were both in the mood to keep playing around with our boards, so we rented boards and slightly bigger sails after lunch to see if that would be easier to get moving. We had a bit more success, but still couldn't figure out how to get the board going what direction we wanted and still spent a lot of time dragging our boards away from the "danger zone." Toward the end of our hour, poor Gavin fell off his board and landed his foot on something sharp, and got a nasty, deep cut on the bottom of his pinkie toe. My own "battle scars" weren't so bad - just a number of bruises from falling on the board and the mast, and once I landed not on soft sand but a bed of shallow rocks...

Smooth sailing, at least for now... :)

Our first order of business after we drove back to Kralendijk was to buy some bandaids at a grocery store, but unfortunately they didn't have antibiotic ointment. We went back to our apartment so Gavin could clean his cut, then we went into downtown and found what is probably the ONLY pharmacy in town and got antibiotic ointment. Gavin was worried about infection after being in the sea water.

After that, we wandered around and did a little shopping downtown - it seemed to be mostly basic catering-to-cruise-ship fare - lots of jewelry and those "islandy" dresses that are floral, brightly colored and completely shapeless, the kind people look at while they are ON an island and say "Wow, this is so colorful and awesome, I have to buy this" and then they get back to the US or wherever they live and see how stupid it looks anywhere else BUT on an island in the Caribbean... :) (note, I have NEVER bought one of these "island" outfits! They look horrible on me, and in my opinion everyone else who wears them. :) ) All we bought was a woven hanging fruit basket that was probably made in India, but will still look great in our kitchen, if we can get it back to the states in one piece...

We had an early dinner at the Lonely Planet recommended restaurant Mona Lisa - a Dutch restaurant for steak and seafood. I was in the mood for something light, so I ordered a "traditional Bonaire fish soup" and a smoked salmon salad. Gavin ordered the "catch of the day," which was tuna. The fish soup had nice pieces of fresh fish in it, but was pretty bland, and the broth tasted exactly like the Lipton Cup-a-Soup I used to make when I was younger. (the single-serving bag of dried soup that you mix with a cup of water) They also, strangely, served our glasses of malbec CHILLED. Luckily it was warm enough outside that by the time our meal arrived it was warm enough to drink. :) Overall, this place I think was overrated and overpriced. That seems to be the trend here for eating out - bland food and high prices.

After dinner we headed over to the only food we have been delighted with so far in Bonaire - Gio's gelato shop. Tonight I tried their coconut gelato - YUMMY! Gavin stuck to his pistachio and hazelnut. It was still early, but we went back to the apartment to relax in the fresh Bonaire breezes to end our night.

 

 

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Bonaire

We arrived in Bonaire late last night, and got to wake up with the Caribbean sun shining in our window. I got up before Gavin, and sat reading and enjoying the breeze in a hammock on our terrace... That is, until the sun came up far enough to touch my skin, then I had to move to the terrace on the other side of our apartment - my pasty white self forgot my sunscreen... Marji, the owner of our apartment, knocked on our door to say hi, since we didn't meet her last night, and she gave us directions to walk back to the airport so we could pick up our rental car; Budget had closed before we arrived to pick up the car last night. Marji's directions included "now you're going to have to jump a couple fences..." :) But by jumping the fences, we saved ourselves a good 20 minutes of walking in the hot Bonaire sun.

A hammock and fresh, Caribbean breezes on our terrace.

The view of Kralendijk from our terrace.

We picked up a little bright blue Yaris that only had 30,000 miles on it, but definitely has been put through its paces and is a bit beat up. :) We then headed down to Lac Bay for lunch.

Bonaire is really small, only about 250 square miles. We are staying in the main town, Kralendijk, So Lac Bay, though on the opposite side of the island, was only about a 15 minute drive. Lac Bay is a protected bay with perfect white sand and perfect Caribbean-blue water, and is only a few feet deep probably about 1/2 mile out to sea. It is supposed to be some of the best windsurfing in the world. Gavin and I had lunch a Jibe City, a beach bar that Marji had recommended. We had salads, sandwiches, fresh banana/kiwi juice and enjoyed the fresh breezes of the outdoor bar. The wind was pretty slow today, so there were not many windsurfers to watch. We booked a private lesson to try it out tomorrow!

Gavin enjoys fresh banana kiwi juice at Jibe City.

VERY rocky beaches in the south. No pristine white sand here. :)

The barren, arid landscape of south Bonaire.

 

We then took "the long way" back to Kralendijk, going around the southern tip of the island and the salt flats. The landscape in the south is pretty barren - very rocky and arid in the center, and on the coast lots of sea flotsam and plastic crap has washed ashore. People have taken to making sculptures out of the driftwood and pieces of plastic that are on the coastline - not skillful sculptures, mind you, more like what a two year old would do if they had the height or the strength to pile things 5-6 feet high. :) There was one of these at least once every quarter mile. Also, we noticed a lot of yellow painted rocks on the side of the road, with names on them like "Alice in Wonderland," "Red Slave," "Vista Blue" and more. We figured out these are marking the myriad of shore diving sites on the coast - shore diving being that you walk into the water a few fe3et and suddenly there are lovely things to see. (rather than having to take a boat out to dive sites, Bonaire is almost all shore diving!)

Just south of Kralendijk is the salt factory, and the salt lakes where the salt is collected have a bright pink hue due to microorganisms in the water. The collected salt is in huge, bright white conical piles waiting to be collected and shipped away.

The salt factory of Bonaire with huge piles of salt!

Gavin in front of the salt factory.

The pink salt lakes.

When we got back to Kralendijk we had to go to the grocery store to stock up the apartment. We got a second rude awakening about how much things cost here when we spent about $80 on simple things like eggs, tea and milk... (the first rude awakening was $42 for lunch of a sandwich and two salads... We thought this was just because it was a touristy place, but I guess even basic groceries cost a lot here!)

Then we went back to the apartment and took a "siesta" - still tired from our 3am wake up and full day of traveling yesterday. We got up and Gavin tried his hand at making a fruity island blended drink - basically a piña colada with some mango juice added, but very tasty! :) We sat on the terrace and read for a while while finishing off his blender full of fruity goodness, and then we drove into downtown to have dinner.

I enjoy Gavin's fruity cocktail in the hammock.

We happened to arrive right as a parade was starting! I am guessing it must be for Carnival, since everyone was dressed up and dancing down the street behind trucks with huge speakers. The music was so loud it made me feel like my whole body was vibrating to the core. Different groups of people dancing had matching costumes - and the groups were all ages, from adults, to teens to little kids, all sparkly and colorful and painted with makeup, even the boys! The parade was pretty short and only lasted about 10 minutes, so we continued on Kaya Grande toward our restaurant of choice.

Carnival revelers "wineing!" :)

More "wineing." :)

Bobbejan's Take-Away was a bit north of the main downtown, but it was recommended as a good BBQ place in our trusty Lonely Planet. Gavin had a huge plate of BBQ, including really tasty ribs, and I had an Indonesian style chicken satay with peanut sauce. Indonesian food is common here; it was brought over by the colonial Dutch. Though the restaurant name includes "Take Away" and there were piles of people waiting in the front for their take out orders, there was also a seating area in back, where Gavin and I sat under a canopy since it had been raining off and since we left the apartment.

After dinner, we headed back to downtown Kralendijk to have a drink. We stopped at Little Havana and I had a mojito. There was a rock band playing when we first arrived, and they were actually really good, but I think they were just doing a sound check since they only played about a minute each of a few songs, then stopped playing and didn't come back the rest of the time we were there.

Seems like the night life is a little slow here - not a lot of people around, maybe just because it is Sunday night. Most of the few bars were pretty empty, so we headed back to our lovely apartment to go to bed early. Tomorrow we will get up a bit early to go learn to windsurf! :)

 

 

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A garden walk and a "sweet" walk.

Today was our last day in Barcelona, so of course we slept late to take advantage of our last day of vacation, and also to prep for a sleepless night ahead of us (we have to get up at 3am tomorrow morning to catch our plane...)  We left the apartment and went to lunch at Casa Tomasa in El Born.  It had a nice outdoor terrace, but they actually charged more for the meals on the terrace than to eat indoors!  Being the cheapskates we are, we opted to eat indoors despite the lovely day.  :)  Casa Tomasa was another welcome chance to eat a few greens; I had a tasty strawberry and salmon salad.

Tower of the cable car Transbordador Aeri.

After lunch we decided to ride the cable car from La Barceloneta to Montjuïc to get a lovely view of Barcelona.  We didn't realize that this would take a LOT longer than expected.  First, we waited at the bottom of the tower - there were only about 30 people in line, so we expected it would be a pretty short wait, but we had to stand there for about a half hour.  Then once we got up to the top, we had to wait for another 45 minutes before even getting on the cable car!  It only holds about 15 people, and it moves ve-e-e-e-eery slowly...

Once we got on the cable car, it did provide lovely views of the city, despite the fact that I had to have my face almost directly in some German guy's smelly armpit.  From the cable car we had beautiful views of land and sea, and I could see all the way to the Cathedral, and even beyond to the spires of La Sagrada Familia!

Beautiful Barcelona as viewed from the cable car.

That boat in the picture was seriously HUGE - the mast was probably 3-4 stories high!  The wide angle lens makes it look small.  :)

Barcelona!

At the top of Montjuïc, we decided to do the "views and gardens" walk from the Lonely Planet.  Lonely Planet unfortunately didn't tell us that the art museums on the walk are all closed on Mondays... The various gardens were lovely and green, though I bet they are a lot nicer in the summer when the flowers are in bloom.

The view of Barcelona from Montjuïc.

Inside one of the gardens of Montjuïc, with the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya visible above the trees.

Walking in the Jardins de Laribal.

Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya - the end of our walk through the gardens.

Finished with our garden walk, I picked out another tasty looking walk from Rick Steve's book - "a short, sweet walk." :)  This walk starting from La Rambla was a tour of some sweet and calorie-laden Spanish delights.  We started out at Casa Colomina for some turrón, sort of like fudge or nougat made with almonds, honey and sugar.  We nibbled on the turrón as we headed for La Pallaresa Granja-Xocolateria for churros con chocolate - yummy, deep fried tubes of dough which are then dipped into a cup of hot chocolate so thick it is a step away from being pudding!  Rick Steves books tend to be great at getting us off the beaten path, and this place was ALL locals - not a single tourist in the place besides us!  At this early evening hour it was packed - not a single empty table, and the servers could barely squeeze between all the crowded tables.  Perhaps this is why the Spanish can eat their dinner so late - they have churros at 5pm as a snack!  :)  Our last stop was the Fargas chocolate shop for more delicious homemade chocolate truffles.

Gavin enjoys some churros con chocolate at La Pallaresa Granja-Xocolateria.

Having had three desserts first as our "appetizer," we then headed out to dinner.  (yes, we are a little ridiculous with the eating on our vacations...)  Gavin picked a place recommended on Yelp called Il Mercante de Venezia, a nice, quiet Italian place that was a welcome change from seafood and tapas.  We had a lovely dinner with delicious red wine, then headed out to take one last romantic evening walk in Barcelona, heading back to the apartment early to pack and get ready for our 3am walk up call.  Tomorrow we say adiós to Barcelona.

Port Vell at night.

Zombified at Los Caricoles :)

Today Gavin and I headed over to the El Raval district just beyond La Rambla to see the Museu Marítim.  We were excited to see a full-sized replica of Don Juan of Austria's flagship; from the pictures it looked like a beautiful gold-gilded mahogany masterpiece, and it is incredible that one is actually allowed to board it and walk around!

Don Juan's flagship in the museum.  Not our picture, see below for details. :(

Unfortunately, this beautiful thing was closed for restoration - we didn't even get to peek in a room to see it!  Sad!  The rest of the museum was smaller replica ships encased in glass, engines and other assorted bits of ships and lots of seafaring history.

We cracked up at this display - a Garmin GPS is on display in the museum.  I guess GPSs are ancient history now...  :)

Port Vell.

After the Museu Marítim, we headed over to La Barceloneta to see Port Vell, which includes a large shopping mall.  Outside the mall, artists were selling their paintings, so we bought a small one for our collection (we try to buy a piece of art from a market or on the street anywhere we go!).  Then we headed back in to La Rambla to try out Los Caracoles, a famous Barcelona restaurant, for lunch.  I decided to be adventurous and try their squid ink paella.  It arrived in a black paella pan and was so blackened with the squid ink it was barely distinguishable from the pan!  The paella was nicely tamed for the tourists, as the shrimp were thankfully fully cleaned (no eyeballs, antennae, legs, etc).  :)  I also kind of liked the dark ink covering up all the seafood "mystery meat" so I couldn't tell what it was - my growing-up-in-the-midwest tastes are still a little revolted by little rubbery bits...  :)  The squid ink itself was pretty salty and gave the dish the slightest aftertaste of pond scum, but eating it had the humorous effect of giving me "zombie mouth."

Los Caricoles means "the snails" and they give you little bread loaves shaped like snails!  So cute!  I wasn't brave enough to order the REAL snails that are their specialty...  :)

Squid ink paella at Los Caracoles.

See? Zombie Mouth!  I should try out to be an extra on Walking Dead...  :)

Zombie mouth gave rise to this little video gem, which I made Gavin shoot when none of the classy, tie-clad waiters were watching.  :)

After lunch, we walked around the Port Vell area a bit more, taking in one of Barceloneta's lovely beaches.  Though the weather was a little chilly, that evidently doesn't stop kite boarders from bringing out their parachutes.  :)

Me in Barceloneta (with my new Barcelona advertising banner purse.  :)  )

Kite boarders in La Barceloneta.  BRRRRR!!!  The ones I saw closer up were wearing wet suits.

Gavin on the beach in La Barceloneta.  :)

For dinner, we decided to ditch the travel guidebooks which have been leading us astray this whole trip.  We walked around in the El Born district near our apartment and came upon a tiny little side street with lots of interesting looking places to eat and drink.  We settled on a nice tapas bar called Suaida al Born for dinner.  It was a lovely, medieval looking place with stone walls and heavy wood tables and booths.  We had some delicious tapas and wonderful sangria, then headed out for the next bar down for more nibbles and drinks.  This bar was aptly named Rubi, as everything in it was ruby red - walls, decor, lamps, even the lightbulbs themselves gave the whole place a dark red glow.  The low lighting and small tables created an intimate atmosphere, despite the noisy Brits at the next table over.  :)  Wanting a change from sangria, I ordered a strawberry mojito, and it was one of the best I have ever had!  Our last stop on our evening's tour of pleasures was once again Creps Barcelona for more delicious dessert crepes and tea, a lovely way to end our evening of tapas gluttony.  :)

If Bag End were a tourist attraction...

Today was the first day of Gavin's conference, so I got to entertain myself for most of the day.  I started out by heading over to Park Güell, Gaudi's miniature city that was meant to be a housing site for the well-to-do of Barcelona, but unfortunately it didn't take off.  I imagined it would be a delightful place, architecture looking like something from the Hobbit, colorful mosaics, lovely walking paths...  All of the above applies, but add about a thousand tourists, nearby restaurant owners walking around with signs and calling out to potential customers, plus almost an hour in transit (subway and walking uphill) to get there, and that tends to diminish the charm...  I should have planned better and arrived before the crowds instead of right at noon...

The gatehouses of Park Güell, and the city of Barcelona beyond...

So many tourists in Park Güell that I could hardly get any decent pictures.

Inside the Sala Hipóstila (Hall of 100 Columns - there aren't actually 100 columns, there are only 88.  No, I didn't count...  :)  ) 

After my brief walk around Park Güell, I headed down into the Garcia district to have lunch.  I grabbed a little sandwich at a bakery near Plaça de la Revolució de Setembre de 1868 (imagine having to write THAT return address on all your mail...).  I ate lunch on a park bench in the plaza while a couple of young girls beside me played cat's cradle with string.

After lunch, I headed back to Mercat de Mercats - I just had to have some more of those incredible chocolate/raspberry/cognac truffles!  As I mentioned before, the Mercat de Mercats is right outside the Cathedral, and it made me giggle to see so many people calmly sitting on the steps of one of the major cathedrals in Barcelona drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.  :)

Mercat de Mercats.

Boozin' it up on the steps of the cathedral.  :)

Inside La Catedral, Barcelona's awesome Gothic cathedral.  Since Gavin isn't all that interested in going inside churches, especially if he has to pay for it, :)  I went by myself!

Upon leaving the Cathedral by a side entrance, I found myself at a loss for my sense of direction again (not like mine is all that great in the first place...) and "unfortunately" (for our bank account   :)  ) ended up back on Calle de Ferran (the major shopping street that leads to La Rambla), where I saw a store that only sold recycled purses, handbags, etc.  I bought a funky purse made from recycled Barcelona advertising banners.

Later in the evening, Gavin was finished with his conference, so we headed out in the Born district to find some dinner.  We once again failed to find a Lonely Planet recommended place, (I guess their Barcelona book is way out of date!) so settled on a nice restaurant near the Picasso museum that had some covered outdoor seating; the sky had been spitting rain intermittently throughout the evening, but it was still not too chilly to eat outdoors.  I was happy to be able to order a nice, fresh salad, but their salmon dish was tasty, too.

Overall, I enjoy days walking in cities by myself while Gavin is busy working.  It gives me a chance to see the sites that I am interested in but with which he would have been bored, but I am always happy when he comes back and we can end our day together with a nice dinner, drinks and strolling through the quiet streets at night.

Barcelona, the perpetual sidewalk

Barcelona's many narrow, jumbled streets paved with cement blocks or tiles are often pedestian-only, giving the whole city the feeling of being a perpetual sidewalk. But every once in a while, we will be walking down a narrow street only to suddenly have a car approach. I think this is probably how they keep the tourist population down... :)

Today I feel completely adjusted to Barcelona time, but Gavin wasn't so lucky... He told me he woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep, so was reading until 9am when I finally woke up. Then as soon as I got up he promptly fell back asleep until noon. (in the meantime I got ready to do, did some research for what to do today, wrote yesterday's blog post... then finally ran out of things to do and made him get up. :) )

First, we headed over to the Mercado Santa Maria, only a few blocks from our apartment, to have lunch/brunch. Mercado Santa Maria is a permanently standing produce, fish and meat market that is open pretty much every day from early morning until early afternoon. I always enjoy the fresh food markets in other countries - every vendor pays such attention to artistically arranging their wares: perfectly arranged piles of bell peppers, massive clumps of sausages and meats hung from hooks above the vendors' heads, fish, hooks in the mouths still included, arranged so they are all staring at my accusingly with their still-shiny moist eyes... :)

Mercado de Santa Maria. (notice the lovely tripe (intestines) for sale in front...)

Look at all that meat! (don't mind the tourist-hater glaring at the camera... :) )

See, I TOLD you they were staring at me!

One of the restaurants in the Mercado Santa Maria was highly recommended by both our Lonely Planet book and our apartment manager, so we sat at a shared table and ordered some tapas. I also ordered some fresh apple/carrot/mint juice - probably the most vitamins I will get on this whole trip. :) A really fun band was playing mostly New Orleans style jazz, but a few other standards like Mack the Knife. We also did some people watching - easily pegging the tourists in their sweats, fanny packs and backpacks... Natives to Barcelona are really stylish, but one of the first things that struck me yesterday is that they wear VERY little bright color - mostly blacks, grays and earth tones. So that has become another way I to mark tourists - anyone wearing color (like my bright blue shirt I was wearing today) is more than likely a tourist. :)

The mosaic-roofed outside of the Mercado de Santa Maria.

After brunch Gavin and I decided to do the "Sins of Gluttony" walk from our Lonely Planet book - it was a walk completely based on sampling or buying food. (NOT healthy food...) And, bonus, the walk started at Mercado Santa Maria! The first stop after the market was the Museu de la Xocolata (Museum of Chocolate) that not only had displays of old chocolate making equipment and exhibits on the history of chocolate, it also had the equivalent of a wax museum of chocolate! There were cartoon characters, historical characters, and even a chocolate replica of the Pieta (Mary holding Jesus after he died on the cross), sculpted out of chocolate. Gavin and I each got a free chocolate bar with admission; Gavin was really disappointed that it was dark chocolate, but I was glad to take it off his hands. :) If every museum gave out chocolate with admission, I am sure they would be more popular... :)

Me eating me free museum chocolate in front of a chocolate Tom and Jerry.

Gavin in front of chocolate gladiators.

No, I wasn't kidding - someone really DID make a chocolate Pieta. I am attempting to take communion - "The body of Christ, the chocolate of heaven." Now that I think about it, if the communion wafer changes into the body of Christ, then why can't they make a chocolate communion wafer...? (in other news, I am going to hell for posing for this picture AND writing this caption, and Gavin is going to hell for having the idea for this picture... :)

Our gluttony walk was then supposed to take us to a nut shop, a coffee shop, a sausage shop and two different chocolate shops, but we didn't get much gluttony in because four out of the five above were closed! (at 3pm!) Luckily, we got into Bubo, an incredible chocolate and pastry shop, everything artistically made and kept behind brightly lit glass counters, which gave the impression that we were actually standing in a jewelry store, not a chocolate shop. I ordered some lovely concoction of chocolate, green tea and hazelnut, and it was seriously some of the best chocolate I have had since Switzerland, which so far is the top of my chocolate experiences (and I have had MANY chocolate experiences... :) )

The incredible "jewelry counter" of chocolate and pastries at Bubo.

Chocolate at Bubo!

I am about to partake in one of the tastiest chocolate experiences of my life! :)

At this point we gave up on the gluttony walk since it ended at a restaurant and we were not hungry for dinner yet, so we walked inside the nearby Gothic cathedral Santa Maria del Mar to have a brief look at the lovely stained glass windows and the incredibly high arches and pillars inside. Then we headed back to our apartment, doing a little shopping on the way. We discovered the store Desigual - kind of the Starbucks of Barcelona clothing stores in that there is one every 30 feet. This is probably my new favorite store in the world - everything in there is colorful and unique - I bought only one dress because the place was also higher priced than I normally buy, and many of the things I tried on didn't fit at all - sleeves too short being the main culprit (ah, the woes of being skinny with long arms...). Gavin got a nice sport coat, too!

Santa Maria del Mar

Inside Santa Maria del Mar.

After shopping we headed back to the apartment to drop off our bags, then went out for dinner. We chose a recommended place from Lonely Planet called Agut, pretty close to La Rambla. This time our map and directions were good, but we walked right by the place two or three times because their sign was just a few small letters painted on the side of the building, and not even over the door! Inside it was a nice, warm atmosphere with low, exposed beam ceilings. We got seated in a romantic little corner in the back of the restaurant. We also got some of the faster/better/friendlier service we have had in this city. We ordered a steak to share, and it ended up being a gargantuan mass of meat the size of my thigh! The "garnishes" were french fries and deep fat fried eggplant. And it was actually REALLY good steak, as close to competing with Argentine steak as we have ever had, but it was REALLY rare, despite that we ordered it medium.

A note on restaurant service in Spain and Barcelona - if you come here, don't expect the borderline overdone service we get in US restaurants. ("Hi, my name is John, and I'll be your server today. Our specials are blah blah blah ad nauseum") Here, we are never greeted or acknowledged when we sit at a table in a "seat yourself" kind of place, even if the wait staff happens to be delivering food to the table next to us. They will bring the menu when they are ready and won't even look at you until they are ready to serve you. :) This first contact can often take several minutes, which got my "entitled American" :) side a bit ticked, until I realized that is just what is acceptable here and the wait staff AND diners are not in a rush to get done eating and get on with the next thing on the agenda. After you order, the wait staff bring your food and completely leave you alone to eat it - not once has anyone asked how the food tastes, which I enjoy very much, as American wait staff will invariably stop by and ask about the food when my mouth is completely full. :) We also ALWAYS have to ask for the check; there is no bringing the check as soon as your plate is clean in a rush to get you out of the restaurant, which I also appreciate.

After dinner we headed back to Plaça Reial to have some drinks and dessert at one of the outdoor cafes. We pretty much sat down at the first one we saw: El MariscCo, a cafe specializing in seafood, though we ordered an apple tart, some chcoolate torte and sangria. Ah, Spanish sangria - the worst in Spain is better than the best attempt at sangria from any restaurant in America... Not saying this was bad sangria - it was really good. :) Spanish sangria is as refreshing as ice tea or lemonade on a hot day. (it is not hot here now, but our last trip to Spain was in July...)

We stayed out a bit later tonight, walking all the way to the end of La Rambla at Plaza Catalunya, where we watched a street "artist" blowing giant bubbles for money. Then, well after midnight tonight, we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

A street "artist" blows giant bubbles in Plaça Catalunya.

La Rambla at night.

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