Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia church seen from Park Gruell

Hola desde España, peeps. After 27 hours of travel yesterday, Allison and I got settled into our hotel room in the Hotel Via Augusta in Barcelona. We were pooped! The travel went well save a small screw-up in Madrid where American Airlines apparently didn't have us properly booked on partner airline Iberia's flight to Barcelona. Sadly, I missed the Barcelona Marathon by one week. I probably would have won. Oh well, maybe next year.

After arriving in the hotel we immediately napped for a solid four hours. We dragged ourselves out of the room for a short stroll a few blocks up to a small pizzeria with outdoor seating in a tiny courtyard where we scored some tapas, pizza and beer before retiring back to our room. We slept hard for 10.5 hours. I think we're adjusted now!

Today we walked and rode the excellent city metro all day today seeing many of the more popular sites of Barcelona. With a sunny, clear sky and a high in the low 60s, it was a beautiful day to be out exploring the city. And it's Allison's birthday! A super fine day! Admittedly, though, after our big day of travel I didn't realize it was already April 1st and blew it on the birthday wishes until the late afternoon. Shame on me. But we did have some birthday helado after walking around the cool Park Güell designed by Gaudí in 1900.

Tomorrow we plan to see more of the city including the very popular La Sagrada Familia Church. We tried to get in today but the line wrapped around the block, and then some.

Birthday helado (coffee flavor)