Day 3: We Are Not Very Good Tourists, Barcelona

 Today I am writing from Bar Pi, also a short walk from our hotel. The service for the outdoor seating seems nearly nonexistent, but we’re not in a hurry this afternoon. Dinner at 9 is the next thing on the schedule. Surely the one waiter covering the entire outdoor seating area will get to us eventually.

We've walked all over a different part of the city to see if we wanted to visit the two most popular Gaudi sites. The crowd at Casa Batllo wasn't terrible, but considering how late it was, I expect the more popular attractions to be insane. Even this early in the season.

Archway bridging the gap between two buildings.

Look up!

We are having more fun than these people, I suspect.

Yeah, I take pictures of odds and ends.

Our meandering route took us past this arch that I've seen pictures of, but had no idea where was.

It's rather big and archy.

A nearby statue.

Eventually, we arrived at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. Between the cranes and the lines, we decide to pass. I am unsurprised to find that the recommendation to buy tickets online translates to a crowd so large that I don’t want to be anywhere in it.

That doesn't look too bad from here.

No, no. Abort, abort. This is too many people!

Next, we made our way to Parc Guell, a public park with several structures designed by Gaudi. Of course, each of those portions is behind a paywall and insanely crowded, so we instead wandered the meandering paths up and down and enjoyed watching ornate spires peek through jasmine and citrus trees.

Every 30 minutes they let in an additional 400 people. They don't remove 400 people.

Trading photo ops with some other couple.

Most of the park is nice and quiet.

Oh, good, stairs!

Whatever plants were here smelled really good.

I’m sure we’re really missing out by not going in to either of these famous locations. Whatever, maybe we’ll visit further off season next time.

We've done quite a bit of walking today, and decide to take the metro back. Fortunately it’s more like the Montreal metro than the Beijing one, and the stop near our hotel is accessible from several lines, including the one we are at. Every time I've suggested taking the metro, Bill has looked at me like I suggested we let ourselves be attacked by roller-skating toddlers wielding venomous snakes, but now he’s all “why haven’t we been doing this?”

(Okay, we have reached the end of Bill’s patience with the total lack of service. I've written all of this and the last part of yesterday, and the single waiter for the outdoor seating still hasn't gotten to us at all. Apparently the reviews for this place rave about how great the service is. Ha.)

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And now it’s much later in the evening. Our next courtyard café adventure of the day went considerably better, with sangria at el Salon, a randomly selected place in some small courtyard. After finishing my drink, I realize that we’re quite close to the Picasso Museum. According to our tour book, it’s open for another 80 minutes. We head that way, but find it’s only open another 30 minutes. Perfect – almost nobody is there, and we’re not the sort of great art appreciators who need much time. We quickly make our way through a series of rooms organized by style and date, watching the artist’s progression. My favorite one was Science and Charity, of which they have the large canvas finished painting and several smaller sketch versions showing how his concept evolved. No cameras. Pretty good website, though.

This is the Born district, which was full of lots of interesting looking shopping and a possible location for dinner tomorrow. Eventually, we made it to the harbor, and spend some time enjoying the view and the breeze.

Interesting sculptures near the waterfront.

Followed by paelle. The restaurant wasn’t quite what we expected, but was exactly as described. After we adjusted our expectations a bit, we had a really good time – and a bottle of cava.

I was done walking at that point, so we took a taxi most of the way back to the hotel. A way cheaper taxi than the one from the heliport. Bill had found a bar only open late at night that he wanted to check out. It sounded to me like a chance to walk a lot and then stand in a crowded bar with tourists, so I stayed in the hotel with Declare. It’s been a long day, full of unexpected random fun and disappointing plans. I think the lesson here is to not plan. 

Or to go back to traveling off season.