Ola from Barcelona!!!
Today we got up at the crack of dawn (9am), had breakfast in the hotel, and took a morning walk to an open air bazaar. Students bought a variety of souvenirs and got some fresh air.
At noon checked out of the hotel, we walked our luggage to the Metro, and said adios, Madrid. We took the Metro to the Renfe, which is Spain's high-speed railroad, for the 3 hour trip to Barcelona. The train is amazingly clean (as was the Metro and Spain in general). It is also amazingly quiet and smooth.
After our arrival in Barcelona we took the biggest travel coach bus I have ever seen to our hotel, which is located in the absolute heart of Barcelona shopping, on La Rambla, with the Hard Rock Cafe around the corner.
After checking in, we broke into our small groups to walk for two hours until our dinner reservations. Most groups did some serious shopping and people watching, wandered in funky little alleys, found bakeries (to mark for later days snacking), found gelato (Phoebe will disagree, but Phil's mango gelato with strawberry was the standout). Mr. Rossi's group, being overachievers, actually took advantage of the time to visit a beautiful church instead of just trying on dresses.
We have tried to be really authentic, but even the most orthodox travelers admitted that dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, with familiar American food, was a ton of fun.
Tomorrow we are getting on our tour coach at the crack of dawn (this time I really mean it) for the ride to Carcassonne, a medieval fortress that is back in France, and will be our one salvageable event from the French portion of our itinerary.
Harry- thanks so much for the blog. Love to see the kids pictures! sounds like you are having a great time.
ReplyDelete