Post departure from Barcelona

Sunday, we had skip-the-line tickets to see the Sagrada Familia. I was hyped up, but I felt like crap; Vicki couldn’t leave the vicinity of a bathroom. So we ordered sushi rice and miso soup and stayed put.

On Monday, since we had two-day passes for the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, we that. But it was hot and the top floor of the bus didn't have any cover. The lower floor of the bus was hot and required masks. The audio was hard to hear, and we spent most of the route looking at traffic. So we did one loop (there are two) and called it. After walking Las Ramblas for about 100 yards, we headed back to the apartment for leftover rice and miso and a nap.

That evening, we ventured forth for an attempt at a tasty meal. We chose a highly rated Lebanese place. We got hummus as an app/entree/hors d’oeuvre. Vicki ordered chicken kebabs.

I wanted to taste everything, even though I knew my stomach wasn’t up to it, so I got the super meat platter. 

I ate about two bites of each item and gave up. Frankly, it wasn’t great, but the owner was friendly and talkative, so we were entertained. We headed to our air-conditioned apartment and to bed. 

Tuesday was another great (🙄)travel day. We still didn’t feel top notch, plus there was the threat of rain, so we passed on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus and the Park Guell. Frankly, at this point, I was only ready to get out of town. We grabbed some brunch at yet another highly rated place, and it again failed to live up to the hype. I’ve pretty much ready to give up on Barcelona food. The guy did do some artwork in Vicki’s coffee:

Our taxi picked us up around noon, and upon our request, drove us to the corner opposite the Sagrada Familia. We finally got to see it, and I was amazed. I was also sorry that we would not be going in, since we were headed to our airport hotel. Off we went to stay in a nondescript hotel in a nondescript town near the airport. It had a restaurant, and again we tried to find something good. No such luck. For dinner, we just walked across the street to a hole-in-the-wall place and had fried stuff. Finally, something lived up to our expectations.

[However, the air conditioning in the hotel could not go below 20C, which is about 68F. That seems like it would be cool enough, but the room never got to 20. I would guess that it was at about 74F. The hotel couldn't find a fan for us, and they even had the maintenance guy come in. He did exactly what every maintenance man in the history of maintenance men did; he pointed his little laser thing at the vent and said, "It's working fine." That must be in chapter 1 of the maintenance man training manual. -v]

Tomorrow morning, we catch an early shuttle and head to the airport. 

Random shot: several restaurants have interesting names. This is one:

Update:

Criminy! The Barcelona airport is a CF.  I found out last nite, while researching the "Barcelona says that our AC can't go below 20C," which is what the hotel dude told us, that the civil servants have to work in 27C (~80F) degrees in their workplaces. I think that must be true for the Barcelona airport. The people who tell you what to do don't tell you what to do and then they act all bitchy when you don't do what you're supposed to do; it's crowded; and it's hot. As Dan said, we are just ready to get home. Maybe five weeks away is too long; maybe we've gotten soft and/or too impatient. But we are ready to board and head home. -v