25th Anniversary Trip - Day 2

Day 2. 

We were up at 7 am, quick shower and down to the lower levels for breakfast.   The hotel has complimentary breakfast at level -1. A full spread of food buffet style. Nice and fresh, we take our time and get our fill.   Back to the sunscreen room and get ready for our day of tourism.   After a few moments of panic looking for my glasses (we were on the window sill!), We are off to the Plaza de Catalunya.  It  is a large square in central Barcelona  that is generally considered to be both its city center  and the place where the old city meets new.   We are off on the Hop-on / Hop-off bus tour.   A double decker open roof guided tour of Barcelona. 

There are two lines, we take the green line first, saving the red line for later.   It carries us through old Barcelona with some interesting facts and some advertisements of course.   The trip is nice, as we navigate through the narrow streets and get the feel for the town.   The whole circuit is about 2 hours or so, and the heat is not too bad yet.   We get back to our starting point and head back to the hotel for some sunscreen.   Feeling good, we decide to take the red line bus right away.   It is about noon, so we jump on the bus, with the idea of ​​heading to the market stop for lunch.   The market is on the roadway, which is essentially a mile long tourist trap.   Lots of trinket stores and sidewalk cafes.   







The air is getting hot, and there is no breeze.   Somehow, we walk past the market and all the way back to where we gotten on the bus!   Back to the way we came, we found the market as we started to melt.   A busy place, similar to Granville Island.   We get lucky, as we are walking around, the lady calls out to have us look at their menu.   We get two seats at their busy counter, and order some fresh seafood salad and pan fried Cuttle fish.  





 Not bad, and the mugs of Sangria and beer were nice too!

Back to the bus, in the sweltering heat! We should have taken the siesta!   Both of us took turns nodding off during the tour!   2 hours later, we are back at the hotel for recovery from the dry heat.   Dinner time, we find a nice little tapas restaurant next to the old opera house on a narrow side street. The atmosphere is lively, and the food is tasty.   We sit at the bar, and watch the barkeep make sangria after sangria.   Seems to be the favourite  drink here!

Tomorrow we are off to Montserrat!