I was good and got up not long after 8am and ran on the treadmill in the nice gym up on the twelfth floor. Good equipment, good view, though blinded by the sun. Interesting Spanish telly, including an ad for junior master chef.
A shower, and then down to breakfast. They had an amazing range, and quite a few people coming through, so it was replenished regularly. The tea/coffee machine was tedious, though.
We walked to the beach at 11am, watching the world go past as we walked towards the casino. People were fishing, playing volleyball, and even beach football. As we neared the casino, there was a huge restaurant/bar strip, along a pier, and then along the shore, which was all closed at that time of the day. When we'd seen enough, there was a handy tram nearby that went back to the hotel. Yay trams. Checked out the Japanese restaurant across the road for dinner that night.
Upon arriving at the hotel restaurant, we found out that due to the religious festival (Epiphany) that day, no lunch would be served in the hotel, despite us being told our free meal could be taken at lunch time. So we went to Japanese now instead. It was €16.50 all you could eat, and wasn't bad for the price. The cooked stuff was better than the sushi, though the salmon was surprisingly fresh and nice.
Went back up to the room to decide what to do for the rest of the day. The La Boucheria markets were closed for Epiphany. I checked all the tourist information for something else to do, and decided on Tibidabo, but we could see it from the hotel and cloud was descending on it fast. In the absence of any other ideas, we set off.
We walked to Glories, and got the L1 metro to Plaza Catalunya. Then we got an S2 to Peu del Funicula, and then the cool funicula to Vallvidrera. Then it was a bus to Tibidabo itself. All done on our ten-ride ticket, which didn't seem to be running out. The views of the city from the bus were good.
The amusement park was closed, but we weren't interested in that. It was cold and windy, and I was keen to check out the giant church on top of the mountain that you could see from the city. We turned towards it now.
We went into the chapel underneath first. It was pretty, with very intricate mosaics. People were lighting candles, both real and electric. From there, we walked through to where the lift was, and bought tickets. We got out at the highest point, and went out into the wind. There was a balcony all the way around, but alas, the only view we got was of the cool statues against the cloud. From there, we took some stairs, then small winding stairs. At the top, there was nothing but more wind and more cloud. The view would have been stunning on a clear day.
We'd had enough, so reversed our journey, though this time on an S1. At Catalunya, we came out of the metro and had a wander down Las Ramblas, and into some of the interesting streets. Christian bought a phone cable and I bought a bracelet. We saw the cathedral, some amazing acrobatic buskers, and then found ourselves at the Arc de Triomf. We got the metro back to Glories, though it was close enough that we could see the gherkin. Our feet had had enough by then (mine was a total of 25,000 steps for the day).
We got back about 7pm, which was good timing. We watched an episode of Victoria, and got ready to go down for dinner. Thankfully, they did want to serve us this time. I had zucchini soup (very nice), fish (not so nice), and chocolate ice cream (tasty). Christian had pasta, odd slow-cooked chicken, and a layered cake. We both had sangria again.
I think we watched another Victoria episode, and then went to bed.
A shower, and then down to breakfast. They had an amazing range, and quite a few people coming through, so it was replenished regularly. The tea/coffee machine was tedious, though.
Upon arriving at the hotel restaurant, we found out that due to the religious festival (Epiphany) that day, no lunch would be served in the hotel, despite us being told our free meal could be taken at lunch time. So we went to Japanese now instead. It was €16.50 all you could eat, and wasn't bad for the price. The cooked stuff was better than the sushi, though the salmon was surprisingly fresh and nice.
Went back up to the room to decide what to do for the rest of the day. The La Boucheria markets were closed for Epiphany. I checked all the tourist information for something else to do, and decided on Tibidabo, but we could see it from the hotel and cloud was descending on it fast. In the absence of any other ideas, we set off.
We walked to Glories, and got the L1 metro to Plaza Catalunya. Then we got an S2 to Peu del Funicula, and then the cool funicula to Vallvidrera. Then it was a bus to Tibidabo itself. All done on our ten-ride ticket, which didn't seem to be running out. The views of the city from the bus were good.
The amusement park was closed, but we weren't interested in that. It was cold and windy, and I was keen to check out the giant church on top of the mountain that you could see from the city. We turned towards it now.We went into the chapel underneath first. It was pretty, with very intricate mosaics. People were lighting candles, both real and electric. From there, we walked through to where the lift was, and bought tickets. We got out at the highest point, and went out into the wind. There was a balcony all the way around, but alas, the only view we got was of the cool statues against the cloud. From there, we took some stairs, then small winding stairs. At the top, there was nothing but more wind and more cloud. The view would have been stunning on a clear day.
We got back about 7pm, which was good timing. We watched an episode of Victoria, and got ready to go down for dinner. Thankfully, they did want to serve us this time. I had zucchini soup (very nice), fish (not so nice), and chocolate ice cream (tasty). Christian had pasta, odd slow-cooked chicken, and a layered cake. We both had sangria again.
I think we watched another Victoria episode, and then went to bed.
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