May 7 - 8... journey to Barcelona from San Diego via JFK was pretty inconsequential. The 4 year old did exceptionally well and so did the parents! :-) we arrived in Barcelona early 8th morning to a gloomy day with promises of the Sun making an appearance towards late afternoon. After considering our options from the airport, we decided to take the Aerobus1 from the airport to the city center, the Placa de Catalunya. This turned out a better, more economical option: €5,60 pp vs. upwards of €30 for a taxi (not a cab but a taxi! :-P). We then took a taxi from Placa de Catalunya to the Hotel Arts Barcelona (about €9). The hotel is of the sleek, modern architecture in stark contrast to much of old Barcelona but still very beautiful! We got a lovely corner room thanks to the hubby's influence. :-) A view of the old city from the hotel room is below....
Most of the day was spent recovering from jet-lag. A quick meal at the hotel restaurant called Bites was expensive but delicious (however not worth the moolah!). We learnt that lunch starts only after 1 pm here..so before that time we'd be hard pressed to find a place open for lunch. Later in the day we walked along the Platja de la Barceloneta - this is similar to a boardwalk along the Barceloneta beach. Lots of people walking, running, roller-blading, biking....reminded me of San Diego. Weather has been similar to SD but very humid ...which is definitely doing a number on my hair!!! :-) The walk was fun and I got to experiment with my new found photography knowledge. Images of buildings like the hotel Arts, street signs, long and narrow streets, ancient looking water fountains have found their way into my camera.... remains to be seen if I've done justice to my memory of them! :-P We walked along till we came to Port Vell, looked around the marina and then headed into Barceloneta to a restaurant called Can Ramonet. This was recommended by the hotel concierge...we passed by many interesting seafood and tapas place but stuck to the recommendation inspite of being skeptical. Turned out to be a very charming local Tapas and seafood place. Neil was horrified yet intrigued by the tank of lobsters..."mamma, these are alive!!!", followed by "are these from the tank???" when prawns in garlic sauce was brought to the table (which, of course he did not touch!). We thoroughly enjoyed tapas, some 'rojo vino' and my first taste of Iberian ham (surprisingly yum)!!! After thoroughly enjoying some refreshingly good desserts (we had no idea what it was...since our host spoke only Spanish and our attempts to ask him what we were having was met with lots of 'muy bien' which it certainly was!), we walked back to the hotel.
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