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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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Early morning of Day 12 , Wednesday 16 May (285 Hours down 603 to go)
Book out of Conrad Cairo and take hotel Mercedes to Airport, traffic still heavy in city, don’t these bastards ever go home. Easy check in at airport with Iberia, given invitation to VIP lounge, we are the only people in non smoking lounge which is more like a bus station waiting room, had a quick look around Duty Free to fill in time but they would have to be the worst ever shops with the most bored staff at 12.30am. Get on board plane and as there are very few people on the flight they decide to take off 30 minutes early. We are lucky only 4 people in business class, which is nothing special, but we are able to grab a row each, lift up the arms and lay down for the 4 hour flight. The Spanish hostess reckons we should eat and drink, so we sit up and they actually served quite a decent meal which is washed down with a bottle of red and a Spanish brandy just to help us sleep, hopefully. We were able to have a couple of hours sleep before being woken up just prior to landing at 4.15am Barcelona time.
Barcelona airport is asleep so we breeze through everything, no lines, no problems, bags waiting for us and we are in a taxi in no time. The only possible problem ahead is at the Hotel America, as check in time is 2.00pm and it is 5.00am - will we be able to get into a room or will be walking the streets for 9 hours? After several consultations with his UBD the Taxi eventually finds the hotel and we are pleased to see a night porter on duty to unlock the hotel doors to let us in. Even better news, we can get access to our room and even better the hotel looks quite modern and funky.
Our room is more than acceptable, but at that hour any room with a bed would look good. We don’t waste any time in jumping into bed and manage to have 4 hours sleep. Time to get out and explore Barcelona, so off we go with the plan to walk down through the main tourist area, Las Rambalos, that leads down to the wharf area, a walk of nearly 3kms. We are immediately very impressed with the wide tree lined streets which have many upmarket shops, bars and restaurants and it has a great feel to it. Las Rambolos is just packed with tourists, street performers and outdoor cafes and retailers. There is a food and produce market where the displays of food are fantastic and make our Central Market look second rate. Every cross street has interesting lanes running off that invite you to explore but there is only so much time. But we did manage to visit the Prada handbag store run by the young African gentlemen and managed to buy a nice handbag, they even provided a discount with bit of encouragement.
We get to the wharf area which is packed with large motor cruisers and yachts (Here’s thinking of you, Carolyn.) and many inviting restaurants so we choose one that is actually a floating barge and order several tapas dishes which turn out to be just perfect, garlic prawns, calamari, peppers and eggplant in oil with fantastic bread, beer and juice. It was a great welcome to Barcelona meal.
After the long walk home it was time for me to catch up on some lost sleep, but Julie had a lot more energy and a strong desire to explore the local neighborhood. Had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant nearby, one of about 30 within a 5 minute walk, very nice and then back home for a well earned sleep. One of the unusual things that we noticed that it is still light at 9.30pm and most restaurants don’t open until 8.00pm when most retail shops close. Weather is mild and is great for the locals to sit outside in the street bars and drink.
Our first impressions of the city are very positive and it is good to back in civilization again.
Pedometer reading 17288 (It’s unnatural to walk so far without a golf club in your hand)
previous travel blog entry
jugdish says:
Hola,Crows beat Richmond by 9 points Fri night. Power on top of the ladder and play Sydney on Sunday. Could you get me some info on the Prada Shop chain as there is a section of pavement for rent at the bay which is quite reasonable! watch out for Manuel !!