Sleep til 9; McD no breakfast food; desayuno at café; internet café; back home; then to PzCat; tour bus; Sagrada Fam; walk up towers; sandwich for lunch; back on bus; to stop 11; walk up street to museum building, up hills, past Olympic tower; to Castell; cable car not running today; look out over waterfront and city; walk back down to bus route; take Fun to Paral-lel and then back up; wait for bus 45 min; getting cold; bus comes, take it to stop 20; bus goes thru waterfront marina areas; very nice must come back in daytime; get off at 20; walk home; Kyla doing homework, then piano; give her lesson/help; K goes to bed; I go to eat; Chinese, not bad, similar to typical USA Chinese restaurant, but I wanted veggies tonight; back home; talk with C, look at today's photos; get C advice about tomorrow's places; do short version of this; go to bed--it is 12 midnight already!
Last Day! Up at usual, breakfast w. C; go to computer store, get modem 12E, back home, put it in, no problem, but computer does not see modem; try to get it to work but no luck; maybe prior modem was ok?; finally give up; go for walk and lunch, tapas in plaza outdoors in sun, great!; potato tortilla (like fat quiche), and fried babyfish very small like sardines, but taste regular fish; repack my stuff; go for walk; more chinese dinner; now have been to all 3 in area, last one was best; walk along busy streets for last time; another cool evening, but good for walking, as it was all week; back home; play piano w. K; take photos; talk w. C, she was really great, and the location of her place in incredible; give her back her SIM card, and pay her for my stay 30E per nite, very good price for BCN; to bed about 11; set alarm for 630; read and go to sleep.
Sleep til 8:30; breakfast at same café; take leather jacket today; internet café; bus at P de C; go to stop 5, Parque Guell; walk up hill for 3 blocks to get to park entrance; lots of people and school kids; Gaudi influenced park; very interesting; walk thru Gaudi house; walk to top of hill; Salve house; Korean tourists photos; great view from top; back down via stairway, lots of stairs; lunch sandwich at plaza; watch the kids play; back to bus stop; ride bus all the way around to no. 19; we stop at Colon for 10 minutes; learn of boat ride for tomorrow; get off at 19; walk to Picasso Museum; now about 3:30; get text message from friend M to meet at 4 at Corte de Ingles; no time to go into Picasso; walk to Corte; meet M at 4; she lives in Terragona, about one hour south along the coast; she was in BCN today for business meeting; we have tapas at café at Corte; then walk down to waterfront; go to top of Colon, 2E each; nice view; take last photo w camera, battery dead; walk along waterfront, across bridge to mall; then towards Olympic village area; then back to La Rambla; have more tapas; then back to PC, M gets subway to bus station to go back to Terragona (too late for train); I go back home; C and K having dinner, quail; I try a little; like chicken, but very small; talk w. C and K; work on journal; phone AA; phone voicemail and office.
Up at 630; lug luggage downstairs, whew!; taxi comes at 725; into taxi and on way to airport; arrive about 8; Iberia Air counter; long lines even for BIZ class; get checked in, go to IB lounge; café con leche and pastry; use internet; board aircraft at 8: 50, BIZ class is almost a joke--seats are almost coach class; but breakfast was OK; push back on time at 9:20; arrive MAD about 10:30; park on tarmac, bus to terminal, beautiful sunny and cool day, nice to be outside!; into MAD terminal; find Iberia lounge, have water and internet, then back out to terminal; get Econ mag and gum; change money to dollars; to gate; lots of people, 747; soon board; seat 11A; other hatch is open, watch cargo loading, interesting--bins with luggage, loading platform with serrated rollers that grab onto bottom of cart and can move cart back, forth, and sideways; last fresh air for long time, prob to DC; delay about 40 minutes, 2 passengers that had checked luggage did not board, so luggage had to be found and removed; finally push back and take off at 1:00, almost 1 hour late; cabin crew lots of motion but not much service, need to visit CP!; video and music system just barely acceptable, again compare to CP; later lunch is served, very good--shrimp salad; baked fish, chocolate cake, etc., ; watch some TV, read some, snooze some; later work on this journal to right now; soon will have snack; should arrive MIA about 3:40 or so, about on time in spite of late start; almost did snooze, but did rest and use up some time; snack served, also good, meats, cheeses, fruits, breads; talk with my seat mate, a man about my age, traveling with his wife and daughter; he is cardiologist in Madrid, going to conference in Panama City to speak, his family will stay in Miami for a few days; we have interesting conversation about heart attacks, and also about China's economic and political systems; come into MIA from the south, Elliot Key out my window; very smooth landing; immigration and customs no real problem, thru in about 40 minutes; look for cellphone store but none at MIA; get café con leche at café; call office; call Mom; leave message for Lynn; call Enterprise, find out they will be closed by time my flight arrives; cancel reservation, get car from Thrifty, actually a little less cost; board last flight today to DCA; seat 3A; mostly read during flight; get dinner (no meal in coach), my preferred choice of salmon all gone, get cheese/pasta, bearable but bland; have to stay in seats final 30 minutes to DCA; no problems, land on time; get luggage, carts are $3, use baggage handler instead for $2; go out side wait for Thrifty van, about 10 minutes, van serves several off airport rental car companies; Thrifty very close to DCA; soon there, enter office, long line, no action, what is problem?; out of cars, sending people to other rental companies, but for some reason I am lucky, by time I get to counter they have 1 compact car, finally get out of there after about an hour; drive to Lynn's house, no problem; first time to drive in 6 months, but feels very natural; arrive about 10:30, talk with L and Spencer; go to bed about 12:00, which is 6:00 AM in BCN, almost 24 hours after getting up. End of trip, end of long day.
Sleep til usual time; breakfast at different café across street with C; go to internet café w. C and sign her up for two different free ISPs. Then go back to house and try to set up her computer to access; no luck, seems modem is dead?; then walk south along La Rambla to harbor, get ticket for 1 hr boat ride starts at 12; get café con leche on board; cold wind; boat goes to east end of harbor, then to entrance to sea, then to west end of harbor; see lots of container and commercial ships, also two auto carriers, with rows and rows and cars lined up in unloading area; go under cable car that goes over harbor, hmmm, looks interesting; back to dock; then walk across bridge to Maremagnum, the mall at waterfront; get sandwich at food court; then walk to west end of harbor, across street, to actual beach area; few people, but some surfers in wet suits in water; walk to tower for cable car; RT is 9E; ride up elevator to top of tower and get on board; small cable car; about 6 people incl. operator; ride over harbor, past midpoint tower, to far end at Montjuic, then back to midpoint; great view; go down to land at midpoint, walk back to city, go to internet café and get rental car for Friday; back home, then out to dinner, to chinese down the street; not great chinese food, but good food--veggies, rice, chicken; walk around some taking in the sights and sounds; not much more time!; then back home; C and K and K's friend V; cute girls; play piano w. K; call office; read; go to bed.
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End of Trip. Thanks!