Barcelona Day 2

We really love Barcelona! It's an amazing city with lots to see and eat. :)

Today, we started the day with a free 2.5-hour tour of the Gothic square of Barcelona. If you haven't taken a free tour before, you should! It's not really free because you tip your guide at the end. But you choose how much you think the tour is worth (and we have always had great experiences). Today's tour was full of history and interesting facts about Barcelona. The city is in Catalunya, an area of Spain with a long history of kings, queens, conquests, and struggle. Catalunya has its own language and flag, and many people here want independence from Spain. If you're interested in hearing more, let us know, and we will happily bore you with additional details.

After the tour, we did some souvenir shopping and looked for a new shirt for Jack to wear to the Barcelona game. :)

The game was great. It was a blowout (Barcelona won 7-0), but it was so cool to experience the fans and traditions of La Liga football (soccer). It was held in the Olympic stadium because Barcelona's stadium is undergoing renovations. It's interesting because everyone is pretty controlled before, during, and after the game. You are not allowed to stand up during play (unless you are in the Supporter section), and everyone is really watching and engaged. You are allowed to stand after goals, so we got to stand a lot since the score was so high! They don't sell alcohol inside the stadium, and there is a lot of security. They also have a smoking section inside. It kind of reminded me of when there were smoking sections on planes and one row was non-smoking, and the next was smoking. Here, the smoking section was open and just a few feet from the food line. Overall, it was a very cool experience, we had a blast, and I had a very happy soccer-loving husband.

I have (Jack) decided I need to pick a team and since we walked by the Celtic Vigo stadium , my LaLiga (Spanish League) team is Vigo. I got a Barca jersey for the game but I gotta go for Vigo.

After the game, we walked back towards the hotel and found an Irish pub that had TV screens so we could watch more soccer. Yep, can't ever have too much for Jack Mowreader. :) We were the only ones there for over an hour (we arrived just after 8pm). Things really start happening late at night in Spain. So as our old bodies were leaving around 11:00ish, the place began to fill up. At least we had very attentive service. :)

Tomorrow is our last full day here, so our plan is to make the most of it. Ciao for now!Okumaya devam et