Return to Humanity

After many hours sleep (like 9), we gave up zombieism and returned to feeling human. We had tickets to the Sagrada at 11:15.  Since it's just a two minute walk from the hotel, we weren't late. For breakfast, we stayed in the hotel and ate at the bar which serves mini-breakfasts as opposed to the huge breakfasts in the restaurant. We made the mistake of ordering coffee which comes as espresso. After we drank that in one gulp, we ordered cafe con leche which wasn't much bigger than the espresso. In the afternoon, we stopped at a bakery and ordered cafe con leche and got huge mugs of delicious coffee.  That was after the gigantic glasses of sangria blanca that we had with lunch.

The Sagrada is as impressive inside as outside. Construction is evident both inside and outside. It was sometimes so noisy it was difficult to hear the audioguide.  The plan is to finish the cathedral by 2026 and it seems every effort is being made to see that that happens.

Inside the SF

We spent about an hour touring the cathedral and then had a ticket to go to the top of one of the towers. There was an elevator to go up but you have to walk down 400 steps to get out.  There are landings along the way where you can see parts of the cathedral from above.  And at one point, views of Barcelona:

View of Barcelona from the SF

As it turned out, the 400 steps were about 200 too many for me. Lola did fine but by the time I got to the end, my legs were shaking and I could barely walk.  I think the reason was the steps are too far apart and also, because of the way the light came in, I had to bend over and look down to see the next step. I am open to other excuses.  My legs are still sore tonight.

After siesta and coffee hour, we decided to take a Hop On/Hop Off bus since I can't walk.  I usually hate those buses but this was very nice because it covered a lot of the city and certainly some parts we would never see on our own.  We never hopped off so the tour was over 2 hours. The bus traveled along the sea for a long time  so we got to see all the tourist attractions and yachts. Also the rich people's apartments.

We also got a view of La Pedrera. I'm sure a tour would be lovely but we probably won't have time for that..

For dinner, we went to a place called La Paradeta and not just because it's located in the alley behind the hotel. We saw it earlier in the day and it looked like an adventure.  There are about 6 of these in the city and they probably appeal mostly to tourists but we wanted to give it a try. It's a cafeteria-style seafood restaurant. You point to the fresh seafood you want and someone weighs in and takes it to be cooked the way you choose. They had a lot of fish we didn't recognize as well as some we didn't want, like octopus. They even had live lobsters. We ordered prawns and mussels and a salad. You go to another station and order drinks and pay.  Then you go sit at a table. Someone calls the number on your bill as each dish is finished. Our salad came out first, then the mussels, then the prawns. As reviews say, it is noisy and has little to no ambiance. Still, the food was delicious and it was an interesting experience.

La Pedrera

Tomorrow morning, we're off to Tortosa for a wedding. The city is about 2 hours south of Barcelona.  We have a lot of train travel on this trip and tomorrow's is the first.