Au Revoir Paris, Hola Barcelona!

Well, we have made it to Barcelona!  I am WAY excited.  This is my first time in southern Europe.

We spent our last day in Paris oversleeping and nearly missing breakfast, killing time by visiting a mall where I watched the kids in the play area while my wife and niece went shopping (which, for clarity, is different than "buying"), and then taking a van to the train station.  Our train left Paris at 8:30 PM.  The taxi company wanted to pick us up from the hotel at 7:30.  I asked them to make it 7:00 and, when we were still in the car at 8:00, was glad I asked them to make it earlier.

We checked in for our passage and lugged our baggage to our specific coach.  That's when I first discovered that traveling by train was not a good idea.  Four people, five bags and a stroller make for very tight quarters on a train.  The stroller almost didn't fit.  I had to use force to get it through the hallway and into our room.  Once in the room, there was no place to put the stroller that allowed us to put down all four beds, so we had to get by with three.

Sleep did not come easy if you were over the age of three.  My son slept soundly from the moment we put him down to the moment he awoke in the morning. My daughter slept fine until she wet the bed she was sharing with my niece and my niece pushed her out of the top bunk in her sleep.  She hit the floor in a loud crash, waking myself and my wife, but not my niece.  My wife slept in spurts, a few minutes at a time.  I abandoned the clan and spent my time discussing molecular engineering, biochemistry, and philosophy with a few Canadians and a metal fabrication owner from Boston who drank more screwdrivers in the course of three hours than the Russians made in all of Communism.  When I finally went back to our cabin, I found sleep difficult myself because the room was too hot.

We arrived in Barcelona at 8:30 AM, everyone exhausted, everyone needing a shower and hopped into two separate cabs to our hotel.  As we experienced in Paris, our room in Barcelona was not available when we arrived at 9 AM and we had to wait until 2 PM to check in.  Unlike Paris, however, this hotel had a shower we could use.  Of course, this is Spain, and the changing room and (only) shower were both co-ed.  The shower also did not have any hot water.

We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and took a walk across the street to the beach.  There are four beaches in Barcelona, each separated by a small pier.  They are all clean, sandy, have a gentle surf and plenty of amenities.  They are all connected by one long promenade with the beach on one side, and a variety of parks and Olympic facilities on the other side.  The string of four beaches is a little over 4 km in length.

We started at the southern most beach, called Barceloneta, and walked north past Icaria, Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella, then turned south and walked back.  All of the beaches of Spain are considered clothing optional, but in Barcelona Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella are the unofficial 'nudist' beaches.  On all of the beaches you'll find adults and children in various degrees of undress.

On the walk south, we stopped for a few moments at one of the parks to rest.  This proved to be a mistake as we were all too tired to stay awake if we weren't moving.  We relocated to a beach side restaurant for drinks while we waited for the room to become available.  At 2 PM, we checked in to the hotel, and checked out of the world of the conscious.  After a two hour nap, we woke, went to dinner, and returned to the hotel for baths and to put the kids to bed.

In one day, I've noticed a few major differences from Paris:

1)  Barcelona is quiet.  We picked a good city to be the relaxing portion of our vacation.  Granted, we arrived on a Sunday in a very Catholic nation, but the streets were empty.  Even the beaches were pretty empty.

2)  Our hotel is in a good location.  The places we wanted to visit with the kids while in Barcelona are all walking distance from our hotel.  The zoo, the Guadi park and architectural buildings are all within two miles of our hotel.

3)  Everything is cheaper.  The food, the drinks, the transportation are all half the price of everything in Paris.  We had tapas for dinner tonight and the total cost for a meal that stuffed all of us to the brink was half what a collection of snacks would have cost us in Paris.  I'm still reeling from the costs of Paris, so this is a welcome change.

4)  They are more accommodating of tourists.  Tourism, last time I checked, was Spain's top industry.  The people of Barcelona know this, and welcome tourists with open arms.  They speak English freely and do it well.  Unlike Paris where, when I asked a waitress if we could speak in English, was told "in France, we speak French".

5)  My Spanish is pretty good.  On the train, I had two choices to converse with our steward - Spanish or French.  My Spanish is mucho mejor than my French, so I chose that.  We were able to communicate easily.  I may have to buy a phrase book for Italy, though.  I don't think Italians are particularly known for speaking English to tourists.