17 June

Barcelona. Today was day one of our guided tour of Spain with Rick Steves. Since our group didn't meet until 6 PM, Andy and I used the morning to sleep in and do our laundry. The laundry was a bit of an adventure as it took us down the Ramblas, the main drag of people and shops. We saw people from all walks of life. There are tourists from all over the world whom you can hear dragging their roller suitcases. There are hippies, who are sometimes called the 'black feet' because they don't wear shoes and you can figure out the rest. We reached the laundry. It had only five commercial washers and four dryers. The back half of the laundry was for the dry cleaning and ironing service they provided. We wanted to do our own laundry. The attendant was busy washing tablecloths, we supposed for some restaurant they contracted with. He told us which washers to use and yelled at us to hurry when we were too 'slow' to load our laundry. While we waited for the laundry, we watched the people walking down the street. We returned to the hotel and took a siesta. We woke and went to the same cafe as yesterday for lunch, El Mos. The prices are reasonable, the food is fresh and tasty, and the menu is understandable. We met our tour group at 6 PM at the hotel. Frederico is our fearless leader. There are twenty members of the tour. One of the families on our trip is from Jefferson, Georgia. Our tour group always matches you with a buddy. I am buddies with Nick, a sophomore at North Georgia College. It is really nice to have another group from the south on our trip. We usually have mostly Canadians, New Englanders, and people from California and Washington state. I think this is the first time that we've had another family from the south. Andy's buddy is Judith, a lady who had a flight delay and couldn't be here for our first night of the tour. Hopefully she will get to join us soon. We did a quick orientation to the neighborhood by visiting Placa de Catalunya, the main square in Barcelona. This square is just up the street from our hotel. We saw all kinds of people and Frederico reminded us to beware of pickpockets. As we walked on the Placa, I saw some hippies surrounding a third hippy who was passed out on the sidewalk. Frederico said 'too much wine' to me by way of explanation, but it looked more like 'too much drugs' to me. I don't think that many other people noticed this scene. We boarded the yellow metro line at Urquinaona and traveled south to Barcoloneta. This stop took us to the beach. We ate at a restaurant called Peru. We started with huge calimari that looked like fried onions. They were breaded and fried in olive oil. They were so fresh that they were easy to bite. They weren't chewy like we typically get in restaurants at home. We then ate a large salad of lettuce, rasish, carrots, boiled eggs, olives, and tomatoes with a dressing of vinegar and olive oil. Next, we were served paella. Paella is a dish that consists of rice, saffron, calimari, mussels, and langostines. For desert, we had a lemon sorbet served in champagne glasses that we slurped up with a straw. We enjoyed getting to know our group members better. We sat near Becky from Georgia, Shams from Pennsylvania, and Farokh from Rhode Island. Shams completed her PhD in Huntsville. So, she knows the Chattanooga area. After our dinner, we took the metro back and walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow is Gaudi Day. We will start our tour at 8:45 AM and do four hours with our guide.