Rain in Spain

There is no rain in Spain. We've decided that. The weather has been phenomenal with temperatures in the mid 20's and not a cloud in sight. Sorry, all our Canadian family and friends!

Life so far in Spain has been non-stop! We stayed in Barcelona at the Gat Xino Hostel, which really DID remind me of the hostels that I stayed in when I was in Europe in the 70’s! The rooms were tiny and spartan and you got breakfast in the common room, which was all included in the price. Of course, in 1973, the price was $1-3 per night per person. It’s now up to 35 Euro per person, so it was much more expensive than we’re used to. It was downtown Barcelona, however, so we taking that into consideration we got a bargain. Besides … we only used the rooms to sleep in. We had the terrace on the roof for our tapas.

We decided on Wednesday morning that we’d head off by tourist bus to see the basic sites of Barcelona and then we’d decide what we really wanted to see. Pete and I really didn’t have a clue about anything except the statue, the ramblas, and the church. Sooooo … we headed off to catch the bus. We observed a rather large crowd of people queuing in a meandering line, and discovered that this was to be the line we were to stand in for the next hour or so. Not so! The Sagrada Famillia was not that far away on the map (so we were told by our fearless leader, Ad), just 7 blocks, let’s walk and catch the bus there when all these fools get off. What a marvelous idea!!!! 21 blocks later, we were wondering just exactly how far away this church was. I mean … it’s BIG, right? We should be able to see the top of it if nothing else! Suffice it to say, that we eventually found or sore feet at the church grounds. Yes, it was magnificent. No, scores of people did not get off the bus. Yes, we got into another queue and waited for 7 (our new number for “a lot more than you bargained for”) busses before we finally got on. When we got back off an hour later, we decided that Christopher was beckoning and sounded much more comfortable than another bus! Bought cheap, good Spanish wine on the way home … some cheese and bread … a jar of olives … yup, tapas on the terrace. Bueno!