The taxi to Heathrow was expensive but quick, and we had a quick breakfast before boarding a fairly empty flight to Barcelona.
Upon arriving we inadvertently went to the wrong baggage area, then could go back, so we had to exit, re-enter security, walk over to the right spot, etc. Somehow all that took an hour.
We took a shuttle bus to pick up our pre-arranged rental with Sixt, some European rental company that doesn't charge "American" prices.
The lady who gave us our car was probably a retired supermodel, I'm guessing near 40. We were impressed, but got down to the business of upgrading the VW Polo to something a little longer. We got a Golf wagon, which I guess we'd call a Jetta wagon. Turbo diesel, brand new car with only 16km on it. Nice vehicle.
From there it was the first foray onto Spanish roads, and it's totally different from Portugal. A wide, Crowchild like road was travelled slowly and calmly at 70kph with nobody passing or jockeying for position whereas in Portugal that'd be a 130kph affair. Scooters ("motos") are everywhere, and the buzz around like a swarm of bees. They're easily half the vehicles on the road.
We easily navigated to Nick & Lori Sellmer's place and found a parking garage. He's got a sweet, spacious apartment on a one way street with nice markets, fruit and veggie stands, and dozens of banks and coffee shops right around. Heavenly really. We had a coffee and brought our luggage up to his place, then snacked and put the bikes together.
Sellmo toured us via bike to his school (IESE), then up to Tibidabo a giant beautiful church overlooking the city. Beautiful road, beautiful view. It's an easier city to navigate than London (what city isn't?) Especially after seeing the hilltop view. Further, it's on a consistent gentle slope, so that alone helps a lot. All in we rode just under two hours.
At the top by the church there's an amusement park as well, oddly enough. Strange.
We rode back home and showered, then went out for a walk and dinner. We took the underground train, which was clean, cheap, and on time according to the countdown timers placed at the station. We stopped in a beautiful tapas bar for a beer and fried peppers, some anchovies, bread, ham, and potato wedges with tasty sauce, and of course more cafe con leche.
After that we walked to the historic part of town and wound our way through the narrow streets to find a beautiful chruch plaza and a wine bar. We sat on the street and drank some delicious bottle. There were 4 local guys at the next table telling stories, smoking, and drinking a bottle of rose wine (I don't know how to do the accent over the e on blackberry). Noteworthy that this wasn't a sign of being gay.
We dined at some place that was ground floor in an old stone building. Nice place and good food. Good stories and fun times too!
After that it was back to the apartment to wind down for the evening, considering we were up at 5am on 4.5 hours of sleep, it was a long day.
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