It is just another morning with really nothing to do!  Our train doesn’t leave until 11:45, so we just have waiting time. We do have breakfast included, so at least we have that to do.  But of course, that takes no time at all and now it is, once again, wait time.  We shower and get ready, then go scope out our route to the platforms.  We also find a 2^nd entrance to the hotel – much closer to our room!  The hotel is the length of the train station, which is monstrous, so the hallways in the hotel?  Never ending!  Our room is way down the hall. We checked in at entrance A, but we have found entrance B.  Hmmm…..  We go in there and ask the desk clerk if we can check out with him, but sadly, no, because we checked in at A, we much check out at A.  Bummer.  I mean, really, we take the elevator up from B?  1 minute to the room.  From A?  5 minutes – seriously!  Ah well, it’s exercise.

Oh, and how right that statement was.  We’re ready to leave, we head down the loooooong hallway to the elevators, and, what?  They are not working!  No lights.  The buttons don’t light. There are no floor numbers on the overhead LED.  What?  No Way?  Ok.  Gird up those loins – or triceps and biceps – we’re carrying these cases down the steps.  Jeez!  Down we go.  Two flights (thank God!) and we are down to the reception area.  Oh, and we look around – and the elevators are working now.  Really?  Double Jeez.  Patience is definitely a virtue we do not have.

Exercise done – we’re all settled up ($74 for the monstrous room – bargain!) and out into the station.  We stop at the café for a cappuccino which the girls says she doesn’t have, only café latte.  Ok, whatever.  Just give us caffeine lady!  As it turns out, I think she actually makes a cappuccino for us, because we can’t see the difference – coffee, cream, frothed milk on top.  They are great – hey – when in Zaragoza.  Then it is off to the Renfe customer service desk to pay for our bag. We tell the clerk we tried to do it online but it wouldn’t ever work and she only charges us the 15 Euro online price.  Thank you!  Of course, nobody ever even checks that we paid – but hey, we’re honest.  What can we say?

Down to the platform, we’re pros at this now.  We are in car 2 and we know it will be down at the end of the platform, so we wait down there and yep, we are in the right position.  First on, have a space for the big bag, heft the little bag up above the seat and voila! We’re off to Barcelona.  This is actually a great way to travel.  Fast, easy, cheap, clean.  The train system here (when they aren’t on strike, obviously) is awesome.

An hour and a half later – hello Barcelona!  We grab a taxi, hit the hotel, and luckily are able to check in.  We have another monstrous room! Ok, wherever we are booking these rooms, we need to continue.  This one is a corner suite type situation, two windows, huge entry hallway, more closets than you would ever need, huge sitting area. It is great.  Too bad both of these have only been for 1 night each!

We quickly stash our bags and head out into Barcelona.  First stop, lunch.  We wander up Parel’el and plop down at the first Café we hit; A Taberna de Vigo.  Perfect.  We have a sweet waiter from the Philippines (didn’t ask, but for certain, the accent, the pronunciations) and proceeded to dig into a sizzling plate of Chistorra en vino and a Fried calamari bocadillo.  Yum.  Perfect snack for our afternoon wanderings.

Next up, we hit Lidl for wine, beer and snacks, checking out all restaurants in the Poble Sec area on the way. After taking our provisions back to the hotel we strike out into Raval and up to Moritz Brewery – where we send a picture to Felix Meana (Button Restaurants) who saw Ed wearing his Moritz shirt at an event and wanted to know where he got it. Barcelona of course!  After a beer and wine there, and a slightly disappointing gift shop (nothing interesting), we wander down to La Rambla, walking through narrow little cobblestone streets with typical Spanish city architecture, and an animal theme – the corner of Tigre and Lleo, plus a great elephant mural. 

Hitting La Rambla we head down toward the water, dodging tourists along the way, to Kiosko Bar – which btw, is now called La Cavalla, because it is the oldest (and smallest) bar in Barcelona, continually operating since 1829.  We had found this little corner hole in the wall (literally) years ago and loved it for the atmosphere.  It was actually open this time (last visit we were too early) and full of patrons (mostly local it seemed) whom we joined for a beer and wine, enjoying the conversation all around (and trying to translate as practice for my pathetic Spanish skills!).

It is a beautiful day, and a nice walk back to the hotel where we hang out, freshening up, before heading out to find some dinner.  We had spied a corner restaurant called Can Eusebio that seemed like it had a good tapas menus, and were lucky enough to find a table on the outside patio.  Croquettas, Fried Calamari and this fried egg and chistorra dish served atop a mound of French fries fed us well.  Oh and the beer…grande really meant grande!  Holy cow – it took me 2 hands to just take a sip.  Needless to say, it was a bit of an overkill – but what can we say?  Didn’t come close to the wine pour – but that’s ok, there’s plenty more back at the hotel for me!

And that’s exactly where we headed after that filling meal. Grabbing our own beer and wine and heading up to the rooftop bar and pool area. A great place to hang out and enjoy the evening.  There’s even a hot tub up there (that no, we did not use, although others were in there!).

Back in the room, we hung out until bed time, ready for our first cruise of the trip in the morning: The RCL Vision of the Seas.