Farewell France and Bring on Barcelona!

GAFFAHS, GRIMACES and GARGANTUAN GROANS: And so ... we thought we'd treat ourselves and take a taxi this morning to the train station instead of stressing to squeeze into the metro ... during morning rush hour ... with our backpacks on both front and back. We asked our Hotel Concierge the night before to book us a taxi for the next morning. He assured us ... " no need to book ahead ... we call ... they are here in 5 minutes". Okay. "C'est si bon!"

NO. Not okay .. and ... not good! When we checked out we requested a taxi ... only to be told quite a few minutes later ... all the lines were busy. He could NOT get us a taxi. What??? How can that even be possible?

He recommended we take to the street to see if we could hail down one of the ones passing by. After three unsuccessful attempts ... we headed underground to the metro ... and ... sandwiched ourselves between the aghast Parisians on there way to work. 😖

GASPS: John lost his balance upon take-off for a moment and looked like a Ospray torpedo headed in my direction! Thank goodness he recovered before he took several of us down! 😱

GAHS: After walking up and down stairs ... changing lines and needing several escalators ... going both up and then down ... we logged 1.6km before we even got to the train station! 👣

GRATITUDES & GRIMACES: We arrived in good time to make our train ... only to discover that our first class tickets were not facing forward and were without a table. There was an empty table with forward facing seats directly behind us, so we crossed our fingers they would remain empty and we could sit there ... until someone official asked us to move ... or ... until someone unofficial claimed the space with their ticket.  And so ... we held our breath with every stop all the way to Barcelona. And we stayed in those seats until ........ Barcelona!! Woohoo!

And we enjoyed the scenic views along the way. It was hard to capture with the camera because at the high speed of the train .... by the time I tried to catch the scene, we had passed it. But, we offer a few of the beautiful sights that we did manage to capture!

GASPS: We had no idea we were putting our life in our driver's hands by getting into a taxi in Baracelona!! Sheesh!!!!! He wove in and out of traffic ... made his own lane ... I was absolutely terrified!!! At one point there was not more than two inches between us and the BUS beside us! But we made it!! We dropped our bags and headed out in search of food and drink.

GREAT BIG GRATITUDES: We walked just around the corner from our AirBnB and realized we were in the local district ... nothing at all touristy about our neighborhood! There were no tables available outside ... so ... the server took one from inside and moved it out for us. Now that is service!!

John was oooohing and ahhhhing about his seafood tapas (anchovies tartare and cuttle fish sauteed in garlic butter along with monkfish & shrimp croquettes!) while I awaited my chicken and beef paella! In all honesty, my paella was good ... but ... not as good as the one my son-in-law Daniel makes.

GRINS: And ... the grocery store was just across the street! So ... guess what we got for $18.85Euros?? We got 4 bottles of Spanish wine (2 red and 2 white - the least expensive was $1.95 and the most expensive one was $3.95). Yes. I am serious!We'll have to let you know how they taste! Remember the 750ml bottleI got in France for $6.00? Well, we also got a a 1.5 litre bottle of water for .35 cents!! If we did the math right ... we could have got almost 35 - 750ml bottles of water for $6.00!! And ... we got some olies and some fancy fruit that we have no idea what it is ... and 1/2 dozen eggs and cream for our coffee. Anyway ... the total bill was $18.85 Euros. Even with the conversion, it's unbelievably inexpensive here.

And so ... we are back in our room ...getting settled in for the night. We are going to get our bearings tomorrow. And ... the weather forecast has improved ... so only a 40% chance of rain before 3pm now.

Good night for now ... k&j

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