Off on another adventure! The weather threatens to hamper our departure as storms assault the southeast and east coast. Though the predictions are dire we manage to leave Huntsville on time and make the quick hop to Atlanta. Leaving Atlanta we are delayed a mere 15 minutes due to the JFK airport taking a pounding and issuing a temporary ground stop. The flight between Atlanta and New York has more than its fair share of turbulence, but so far, so good.
When checking in for our flight in Huntsville I was briefly amused by the Barcelona Airport abbreviation. Claude Shannon calculated that 50% of the English language is redundant. A fact often proven by the number of letters you can drop out of a TXT message and still understand it. I keep seeing the Barcelona Airport “BCN” designation but my mind registers “bacon”. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s morning, maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
Many hours later we land in Barcelona. Dawn managed to nap a bit on the plane. I never seem to be able to sleep on planes so I've been awake for something like 24 hours already. On the plus side the international flight had a pretty good movie selection and I got caught up on Ender’s Game, Catching Fire, and Gravity. Our first challenge is figuring out how to get to our hotel. We stand in line at the tourist info kiosk and ask for the best way to get from the airport to our hotel, H10 Raco Del Pi. We are told that both buses and trains will work...the train will be cheaper but the bus will be faster. We ask how expensive the bus is and are told it’s a whopping 5 Euros. The bus it is then. A short ride later we are dropped off in the Plaça de Catalunya which is a plaza on the north end of La Rambla. Our hotel is in the heart of the Barri Gotic (gothic quarter) which is the oldest part of Barcelona. A short walk later we find our hotel and check into a nice (but small) room. It is now 11:00 am Barcelona time and I want to pass out. Dawn has a day of torturous walking planned to keep me awake and reset my internal clock to European time. So much walking. So tired. Hate wife.
Eventually I catch my third, then fourth winds and make it to 10:00 pm. The indisputable highlight of the day is taking a tour of Casa Batllo. A private residence and apartment building designed by famed Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi. At first I thought the tour price was a bit pricy, but it included an audio tour guide. Once we were in the house the audio tour guide proceeded to point out incredible detail after incredible detail that I would have probably missed. By then end of the tour I felt the price was a good value considering how amazing the building is. Virtually everything in the building was designed and crafted just for this building (banisters, door knobs, windows… everything.) The roof suggests that a dragon is sitting on the house, the attic looks like the inside of its rib-cage. This house is wild.
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