We awoke to rain again today--no drought in Barcelona! We figured it would stop later on just like it did yesterday, so we waited a while until it eased up. We planned to visit two of Gaudi's houses-La Pedrera and Casa Batllo.
When we arrived, we found that they had closed the roof of La Pedrera because of the rain. Since we really wanted to go on the roof, we decided to do a walking tour instead. As soon as we got started, it began to rain again. We kept walking because we thought we would take cover in a church along the walk or in some other building along the way. Instead of letting up, it began to rain harder so we gave up and started back to the hotel. We passed a McDonald's and stopped in for a cup of hot tea. We warmed up but the rain kept on so we went back to the hotel and booked a trip to the monastery, Montserrat, for tomorrow. It is Lola's last chance to see the Monastery and it sounds like the weather there will be ok.
We dried out at the hotel and went to a very nearby restaurant that pretty much only sells Iberian ham sandwiches. Lola and I really like how sandwiches here are spread with olive oil and tomato. It sure beats mayo and I think I will bring that idea back home! So, there we were in the ham sandwich shop, surrounded by hams hanging on the walls, drinking beer, eating ham sandwiches and watching a video of how the hams are produced. I guess you shouldn't think too much while you do this.
After we ate, we returned to our room to do some odds and ends of email and a little reading and catching up on the news on TV. I think I might have heard a snore (could it have come from me?) while I was lying on the bed reading a novel from my ipod. Before we knew it, the sun the was out so we took a walk along La Rambla to see what was going on.
We were determined to have some tapas tonight and thought we would go to our own hotel bar for those. Wrong! The hotel bar did not open until 8pm, but the attendant recommended a tapas bar around the corner from the hotel so that is where we ended up. (we wanted to go to our hotel bar because my son, Mat, had looked at pictures of our hotel and commented that we would need to arrive early for "happy hour' because there were only 3 stools! http://www.hotel-inglaterra.com/images/fotos-galeria/bar.jpg) I really don't believe anyone goes to our hotel restaurant and bar in the evening. It is on the -1 floor and very out of the way.
We ended up at the recommended tapas bar where we had tomato bread, spicy potato tapas, potato and meatball tapas in a spicy tomato sauce and grilled vegetables (and beer). We liked it all. I know that people in Spain eat tapas earlier in the evening and then have a bigger meals much later in the evening but Lola and I never make it to that last meal. We just aren't that hungry and we can't stay up that late. ;-)
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