Barcelona Reprieve

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February 16, 2019



What a reprieve.  We hustle and get up early to clean and leave the apartment in  Valencia by 6:30 am.  Our train is at 7:20 to Barcelona.  Originally our plane to Atlanta left at 1 pm out of Barcelona.  It was cutting it tight to arrive via train at 11:00 to get to airport and fly out at 1:00 PM.  Tight but doable.  Then we get the text.  Your flight has been cancelled.    What a thrill – we are retired so past arranging for Sebastian we are fine to wait a day. So, we choose to bump up our flight to the following day.  This left us with a night in Barcelona. 

All along we have been comparing Valencia to Barcelona.  Funny to get this final comparison point.  After checking into our hotel, we head for a restaurant that Lorena had first spotted a couple of years ago: La Taverna del Clinic.  Wow oh wow.  The waiter took extra care with us and we enjoyed a special meal.  We had gnocchi with grilled calamari in what was described a pesto?  It was a marvelous deconstruction with peas and a reduction with some sort of crunch.  We had a duck cannelloni with a savory cream sauce and then the special red prawn.  Lorena was brave and sucked the innards out of the head.  I was flipped out and not as brave.



Then we remembered that we had missed out on a tour of a prison that we could see now because it was Saturday.   Off we go to see the prison which was just shut down a few years ago.  It reminded me of a locked psychiatric ward which made me sad.  At the time it was built I think it was meant to be therapeutic with lots of light but you could see how oppressive it had become. 



Meanwhile we see lots of people with flags moving towards the “Gran Via” which is the area our hotel is located.  Turns out that there has been a big political move and tons of people are protesting in the streets.  We sort out way to our hotel and Lorena takes pictures out our window and hotel roof top. 



Lorena had to bully me to go back out for drinks and something to eat.  Many would find that hard to believe.  We end up in a cool student bar for beer and Vermut and then onto a crazy pizza joint fashioned after “Eden” We laughed all the way home.

Tomorrow at 1:00 we get out plane home.  Can’t believe we grabbed another day in Barcelona. 

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