September 14-15 -- Barcelona

We arrived here yesterday on the Oasis of the Seas cruise from Ft. Lauderdale.  We had changed our hostel room booking from 3 nights to 2 nights, planning to overnight on the ferry to Rome. However, on looking at the times and trains and such, it would involve spending a not-so-comfortable night on the ferry, immediately followed by a not-at-all-comfortable night taking 3 trains to reach our destination, arriving 1 day late. Ergo, we decided to fly, which is a bit cheaper, even tho we have to pay $86€ for 1 more night in the Hostal Opera Ramblas. This will give us time tomorrow to look for art prints for Rick & Karen. We tried today, but it is Sunday and the shops are closed. 

After Manfred spent 2 patient hours trying to book a flight from Barcelona to Turin, it didn't quite happen. Maybe because he was requesting wheelchairs. We went out and ate in the American Soda restaurant on the corner, gazpacho and paiella. We liked it. Then we went and got hot fudge sundaes @ McDonalds, 10:40 pm, on a balmy night, directly across from the Liceu Opera, watching the endless parade of people. Unfortunately, all the living statues on La Rambla are missing. The government has not yet renewed their licenses, according to our concierge.

Next day we got the hostel concierge to call the Ciruelo distributors on our list, and he found one who had the prints, but they were very expensive, 60€/$110 each, because they are autographed - personally signed on the print.  We bought both for $247 for the 2, mailed to FL. Then we sat @ one of the many outdoor restaurants on the gimongous Plaça Catalunya to watch the people. I took some photos of the huge fountains, pigeons and such. 

We were finally able to get through all the RyanAir website hoops and buy tickets for the 10:55 am flight to Turin & got PDF boarding passes we could email to the concierge so he could print them. In the evening, Manfred wanted some wok food that he had seen earlier, on La Rambla. I had cheesecake for dinner.