Barcelona, Spain

One of the beautiful gardens we looked at today



At the Olympic Stadium--"Telefonica" communications tower (art +utility)

An above ground cemetary

The Magic Fountain around 9pm--amazing how light it still is!

Barcelona-13JUN12

Hi, everyone—thought we’d send you a note to let you know we made it OK to Barcelona. 

The flights to Memphis, Amsterdam, then Barcelona were long, but Nancy tells me not nearly as long as the flights to and from Ethiopia.  Not nearly as stressful, either.  Which is good, because I’d hoped traveling with me would be easier than traveling with an out-of-sorts year-and-a-half old who hardly knew her!

We got to hear all the great languages, and are trying to speak some Spanish here, too. Like my Korean from years ago, it sometimes gets us into more trouble than it has the power to get us out of…but nothing negative of consequence  yet. 

We checked into our hotel, noting small differences from what I had previously understood.  I had THOUGHT we’d get free internet.  Which is, I suppose, true to the letter, but you just get thirty minutes free, then you start paying.  Still, it’s only 3 Euros an hour, which isn’t too bad.  On the plus side: breakfast is included, which had NOT been advertised.  Bonus!  That’ll save some time on our way to see the sights.  The hotel’s proximity to the main part of the city also surprised me; I had thought we were a bit farther out.

We ventured out after checking in this afternoon, and headed toward Montjuic, an elevated area on the outskirts of the city, and walked down the main avenue to a large traffic circle around Plaza d’Espanya, a beautiful sculpture fountain made even more beautiful when I photographed Nancy before it.  We continued forward to the Palau (Palace) Nacional and the Magic Fountain, wended our way through a bunch of gardens and the Olympic area (from the 1992 summer Olympics), and got a little bit lost before finding our way back to the Magic Fountain, where we sat on a park bench holding hands and watching the choreographed water show.