A day at the Beach in Barcelona

After our nice afternoon in Figures, we finished up the drive to Barcelona and checked into our usual, inexpesive hotel--the Holiday Inn Express in Molins De Rei.  It is not IN town--but if you need somewhere inexpensive, clean and safe to stay that is about 15 minutes from the city via and inexpensive train connection, or has a free car park, this is the place.

We were very fortunate to be able to meet up with another family cruising with us, who were also staying at the Holiday Inn, and headed out to a local place for dinner.

The cruise did not leave until Tuesday, so we had all day on Monday to hang out in the area.  We had planned to spend some time in the city, possibly hanging out at Parc de la Ciutadella.  Marika woke with a terrible headache, and espeically with the cruise looming it made more sense for her to stay in and rest that day.  With only the three of us, Rio wanted to head to a beach; we had never actually gone to the local Barcelona beaches.  So, that is exactly what we did.

We drove out to what we have been told is a local favourite (Dave has been there before with locals when working in Barcelona): Castelldefells.

We staked out a spot at a restaurant right on the sand and spent a few pleasant hours munching on tapas, and sipping sodas and sangria between dips in the waves.

Rio, the ever hungry 14 year old boy, also ended up ordering the "menu of the day" (these are typicall in Spain at lunch time and often a good bargain).  He got a pasta "starter" which was as big as many entrees, a steak (with yummy potato and veggie that I stole), a bowl of ice cream and a soda for 12 Euro!  A very good deal.  Can you tell he like the steak??

Late in the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel.  Marika had fallen back asleep and slept the ENTIRE time we were gone--but all that sleep seems to have cured her headache, so were able to dart into the city and check out the progress on Sagrada Familia.  They are building fast and furious these days, so there was tons of scaffolding up.  I tried to get a few decent shots of the building without showing an abundance of construction work.

I am now donning my flame suit so that I can give my opinion (lol).  I'm not loving it.  I like the old style part of the building.  I also like the new style part (it is much like the church up on Tibidabo that I wrote about in January).  I think they do NOT go well together and the combination, now that there is more to be seen, is jarring and jumbled and not pleasant.  There!  I said it!  I even put it in writing!  Barcelona is my favourite city in the world, but its top attraction, that i am supposed to love, just isn't doing it for me these days.

After wandering around the church for a bit, we headed into the Gothic Quarter for an hour or so before meeting up with a lovely group of people from our cruise critic thread (all would be sailing with us the next day) for dinner at The Grill Room (right when they opened, at 7:30, us silly Americans and our early hours). 

I did not take many photos in town--it was getting dark by the time we were there.  I will end with one of the few I did take, of the kids by the fountain in Placa Reial.

--Hadley