Day 13

Thursday August 9

7:45ish am CET - had no reason to get up early today, which of course meant I did LOL.

8:00am - sitting on the end of the bathtub (this is the 2nd hotel in a row where the bathtub has a little open space at the end, never seen it before) soaking my feet in warm water. Seems to help a little - for a little while of walking anyway.

9:00am - went to the pastry shop around the corner…oh my gosh. For 1.20 we got some of the best croissants ever. Mine was chocolate filled with chocolate sprinkles, amanda's was filled with some kind of nut paste and dipped in white chocolate on the ends. Mmmmmmmm. They were also freshly baked and still soft. So good. Sat outside on a shady bench and ate.

9:50am - after eating, made our way to the Ribera or El Born district - it is separated by a main street from the Barri Gotic but similar in style (see pics) architecturally. It's a much more lively area, though. Tons of little restaurants and shops and a beautiful church Santa Maria del Mar. We didn't have a walking tour or anything so we just walked around using the map when we had to. The Santa Maria del Mar church is absolutely beautiful. There is a little side chapel that was even more ornate and stunning. We saw the little side chapel and were like "can we even go in here" and when we rounded the doors, I was taken aback by how beautiful it was, and much brighter and fancier than the main chapel (see pictures). When we were walking around the main chapel, the organ started playing; it scared us at first but then I actually found it quite moving and beautiful.

It was nice to walk around these little alleys and streets and see what we found… by the Picasso museum, I found a beautiful little pottery shop where I bought a little hand-painted "Barcelona" tile done in the local mosaic style, and a cute little teeny hand-painted figurine. Very beautiful little shop with exceptionally reasonable prices considering its proximity to a huge tourist attraction. I could've spent a lot of money there but I've already bought too much ceramic stuff already anyway LOL

12:45pm - after wandering around a little more and trying to find a place for food, having skipped places that looked overpriced (a can of soda for 3 euros?????) and empty/creepy, we stumbled on this tiny little cute place called "Nicasso" - called that likely due to its proximity to the Picasso Museum (where the line stretched so long I just cannot imagine why anyone would bother, but anyway…). This place had a "Tapas menu" where for 9.90 including tax you could get 3 tapas and a drink. So I had chicken wings, fried almonds, and patatas bravas. Amanda had a potato omelette, manchego cheese, and fried mushrooms. The chicken wings was only 3 pieces (of the FLAT part!!!!!) but they were sooooo tastyyyyyyy. Dunno what they were marinated in, but yum. The almonds were that special maracona kind (or however you spell it) and they were fried and you could taste the roasted-ness of them and were salted and they were SO delicious, and the potatoes were freshly fried so they were most excellent too. The place was adorable and well-decorated in a really old building with some hams hanging from the ceiling over the bar and made up paella sitting in the pans; there were maybe 10-12 little tables and 2 guys working there. It was quiet when we got in but by the time we left, many groups of locals who knew the owners were coming in, so that was nice. Very good choice for lunch and it was a lucky little find after we had walked past several other places.

2:15pm - made our way back to the hotel for our afternoon rest and relaxation.

4:30pm - left the hotel and made our way to the Barceloneta district by the waterfront. Took the subway one stop further than we had this morning and walked down the boardwalk towards the water. We had nothing particular in mind, just wanted to wander in a new place. We saw an ice cream place called Fratello that looked out of this world, so we got some. I got a 2-flavor cup (see pictures) with cappuccino and chocolate with almonds. I can't even describe how good it was. Amanda got a cone of white chocolate (see pics LOL). Then we kept walking, by Port Vell, down to the beaches. The first glimpse of the Mediterranean left me breathless. It was so BLUE. Never before had I seen a beach horizon that was so clear because the difference in the color between the sea and the sky was so different. Just absolutely stunning. We walked along the boardwalk at the beach for a while and then took a shortcut back to the subway around 6:15.

7:00pmish - made it to Placa Espanya, a few stops past the stop by our hotel, where we thought the Magic Fountain display would be. Turns out it wasn't til 9, so we went back on the subway a few stops to Ramblas de Catalunya where we ate at El Raco again and had pasta. No set menu for 10 euros at dinnertime :( but it was still pretty tasty and cheap. Not the best meal but we had already had tapas, were a little tired, and wanted to be sure to make it back to Placa Espanya before 9.

8:45pm - made it back to Placa Espanya where it was hard to find a seat ANYWHERE and there were literally thousands of people… this happens every weekend all year long and I couldn't believe how many people there were for the Magic Fountain!! I mean I had heard it was great but still. It was reminiscent of the 4th of July but yet much more often than once a year!

9:00pm - the first display started, which was just lights. Took tons of pictures and a couple videos. The display is just impressive. Huge amounts of water.

9:30pm - the "real" show starts, the lights and water are synchronized to a classical music medley including, of course, the 1812 overture - could any kind of display like this be complete without it!?! It lasted about 10-15 min and I tried to record the whole thing on video (with no sound of course), then figured we should make our way to the metro in case it was crazy busy. Then the show started up again to new music and stuff. Pretty neat. We stopped periodically and kept watching as we made our way to the metro, which actually wasn't too bad at all. I think we were smart and left in the middle of one of the fountain displays that happen every half hour til 11pm, so that we missed the big rush. Went 3 stops on the metro and our hotel is right around the corner.

10:30pm. Long but very fun day. Saw a great part of Barcelona in the El Born district and had a great and different tapas lunch, saw a more modern area in the Barceloneta district with the manmade beach on a picture perfect dry sunny day of about 80 degrees, and ended the day with a breathtaking display of the biggest and most amazing fountain I have certainly ever seen!!!