Europe 2011 - Day 4

Lots of street sweepers are out every morning

Thanks goodness we didn’t have to get up early this morning as we had been up late the last two nights and also walked a lot each day.

Today we started out at 10:00am with a 1 ½ hour walking tour of Barcelona’s seafront. Then we took a 1 ½ hour boat tour of the harbor and along the entire city coast line, about 3 hours.

After the tours we got a cab and ate lunch at an outside restaurant close to the hotel.

The entrance to Mar Bella Beach

Then it was up to the Mar Bella Beach for an afternoon of sitting out and walking on the beach. What a wonderful beach it has been and we will hate to leave it. This has been the most relaxed, family friendly nude beach that we have ever been to – and it is right in the middle of the city, not hidden and /or a long walk to get to like a lot are. The United States should be so free and neither words nor pictures could describe this environment.

Back to the hotel then to change for the evening.

The most famous opera house in Barcelona and maybe in all so Spain is the Palau de la Musica Catalana. It opened in 1908 The site was named a World Heritage Site in 1997. We were lucky enough to get tickets to tour the building in the early evening. The building and inside was amazing. It was the first structure built in Barcelona of steal and then they encased it with beautiful glass and mosaic columns.



Locals Dancing



Then we walked to a Tappas restaurant we had seen the night before and along the way came across dozens of locals dancing in the square outside the Cathedral to a band. What fun they were having and the tourists were having watching them.

After dinner, we had box seats for a performance. – Wow was it special. The show was a performance by an international guitar master named Manuel Gonzalez who was brilliant on the guitar. I wish we had a video because you cannot describe his talent and how his fingers moved on the strings.

After the concert we walked for a little bit and then it started to rain so we came back to the hotel.

Dinner

A wonderful day – tomorrow it is the ship – the Carnival Magic.

Our seats for the concert

Outside of the conceert hall

Europe 2011 - Day 3

We headed for the church at the top of the mountain

We got up pretty early and headed for the subway for the first of four methods of transportation to get to the top of the Tibidabo Mountain and see the Temple de Segrat Cor., a Catholic Church. We got there in a subway, then a train, an electric street car and then a tram that went right up the side of the mountain.

Built in 1806 it is on the highest point around Barcelona. What a view we had from the top of the church after taking an elevator to the top of the steeple and then walking a little higher.



The Church at the top of the mountain

After visiting the church, we headed back down to the city, walked around also went in the oldest Jewish Synagogue in Europe. We almost missed it as you reach it through a little doorway that goes down into the basement of a building.
Then we hopped a cab back to the hotel to pick up Hawaiian Tropic and head for the beach. As it was yesterday, the beach was wonderful.

Back again to the hotel to change and then we went to the Spanish Village. To get there, we had to take 3 subways and a tram first stopping at the Castle of Montjuic, which while old, was not very impressive. Then we walked about 30 minutes only to find out that the Spanish Village was closing as we got there. We will just have to see that on our next trip!!



The oldest Jewish Synagogue



Then at 9:00pm we watched the Magic Fountain which is a spectacular fountain which is very popular because of its water arrangements sound and lighting. The fountain was built for the 1929 World Fair and it was fun to watch it come alive with a musical water show. It was about a 20 minute light, sound and water show attended by a really lot of people.

After a short subway ride, we were back to the main tourist part of town to watch people and do a little shopping, finding a really nice dish. A cab took us back to the hotel and in the main entry way was a whole line up of race cars that were parked there for the night. The lead car for the officials was a Maybach, a very, very expensive car.

Today we walked 10.72 miles, yesterday it was just short of 10 miles.  Good thing that we take the subway a lot.

The fountains

What a thing to do to a Ferrari!!

That’s it for tonight. 

Europe 2011 - Day 2

The Market

The day started with a trip to the Boqueria Market in downtown Barcelona. This is a huge market, one of the biggest in Europe that sells every kind of fresh food product that you can think of. The market has been in the same place since 1217! We wandered around the market as they were setting out their products, had a fresh fruit drink and then left to go to our next stop, FC Barcelona.



FC Barcelona Statium

FC Barcelona is the home of the Work Cup Football team (Soccer to us). The stadium is huge and very, very impressive. We took a 45 minute tour of the museum and then all parts of the stadium, from the visitor’s locker room to the press boxes high up in the stands. What a stadium. There are no home games being played while we are here, otherwise, we would go see a game.

Then we took a taxi back to the market for lunch and ate some kind of sausage and rice with peas. We had some really good fresh fruit and then left to go to the hotel and change for the beach.

The City of Barcelona has 2.8 miles of beach and all was built for the 1992 Olympics. There are 9 beaches all separated by large breakwaters with a common boardwalk running the length of all of the beaches. Some are for families and some are not. We went to a very adult beach called Mar Bella and sorry we couldn’t take pictures on this beach. We stayed there a couple of hours in a very hot 80+ degree sun and finally decided it was time to go back to the hotel.

Field Level

After changing in our hotel, it was back into the old city of Barcelona to see some sights we have missed. We started at the Cathedral of Barcelona which was built in the 9th century. Then we took a Trixi tour of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. A Trixi is a bicycle that has a cab on the back where we sat and he peddled us on a wonderful 1 hour tour.

Our tour guide had recommended a restaurant in one of the main plazas so we had him drop us off there and we had a fun evening meal, eating and watching people in the square.

Back to the hotel and a walk along the docks and it was then time for bed.

That’s it for out second day – night.




Lunch at the market



The Ritz - we are on the 29th floor

The Trixi

Europe 2011 - Day 1

The living room

 We left Bloomington on Monday evening and stayed at the Chicago O’Hare Marriott. Then it was onto the airport early Tuesday morning where we took American Airlines to New York. The flight was great but then we had a 7 hour lay over and was that long. But, we finally boarded the flight to Barcelona at 9:00pm Tuesday evening for the overnight flight to Barcelona..

We arrived in Barcelona at 10:30am and were to the Hotel Arts, Ritz-Carlton by noon. Our room wasn’t ready and so they upgraded us to a suite, and what a suite it is. It is on the corner of the 29th floor with windows looking out at the harbor and the water beyond and then the city out the other side. We have two, count them two baths, a living room and a huge bedroom with two queen beds. 

And it even has three phones and two refrigerators.

The view from the bedroom

There are switches everywhere including a switch to automatically lower the drapes – what fun. The room is 625 square feet and normally rents for $725.00 a night!!  We will never see it, but the penthouse rents for $17,000 a night - this is truly the fanciest hotel that we have every stayed in.

By 1:30pm we had our bags, changed and were off to see the city. Our plan today was to finish seeing the famous buildings of the famous designer Gaudi. We first went to the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia which was just concentrated by the Pope earlier to see hope far they had come in completing the Basilica since we were there a couple of years ago. It was started in 1882 and it has another 30 to 80 years to completion, depending on the funding.  We went to the top of one of the towers and were we ever high up.

The bedroom

Then we went to see a massive park designed y Gaudi and two of his most famous homes in the city.

By then it was time to go back to the hotel and find somewhere to eat. We ate at an outdoor restaurant and were back in the hotel at about 9pm. We have only been up since Tuesday morning and we are crashing.

Thanks to everyone back home who are making this trip possible.

Night for tonight.


Inside the Gaudi Church



The Church form the outsie

Controls for everything

July 5 - Day 5, 2011

Oval Office for a press conference

We only had a couple of hours in our last morning so we took the subway to the JFK Presidential Library on the campus of the University of Massachusetts for a quick visit. It was simply breathtaking in its beauty and simplicity. To our surprise, we were able to see the entire Library and make it back to the hotel by subway and even take the subway to the airport, saving a lot of money.

The subway system in Boston is, in our view, the best of any city we have been to in the United States.

Barb at the Library

What a special trip – and we met some people who really made our trip a very extra special one.

Jim and his family at the Boston Pops will always be remembered. The people of Boston were wonderful to us – very friendly and helpful.

This trip was probably the best trip we have taken on the 4th and the fireworks while they were fun were not the best, but it still was the best trip.



Barb sleeping at the subway

 And then when we boarded our AirTran flight from Boston to Atlanta, we immediately recognized a flight attendant who we had flow with before and she recognized us – surprise!!

I shouldn’t say her name on the blog, but if you saw it, you would think that she was a former nun!! It starts with Mary------. What a fun time we had with her on another flight or two and she was just as delightful this flight. Unfortunately there were no upgrades to business class so we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her. We hope that when she comes to Bloomington for an overnight stay that she will give us a call. That’s one of the reason we fly AirTran is because its people are so great and the service so pleasant.

Going Home

Thanks AirTran for allowing us to finish our trip with a smile.

Next year – Philadelphia??

July 4, 2011 – Day 4

What a beautiful day it was and we first took the subway to Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. We had a great 1 ½ hour tour of the park just as they were getting it ready for a game.

Fenway Park

Then it was a short subway ride to the Otis Mansion, one of the oldest mansions in Boston and a tour of that home.

We then walked across the old section of town to see the Colonial Theater but it was closed
By this time in the afternoon, it was time to take the subway to the docks and watch Catamaran races, which were fun but it was very hot so we walked over the our hotel and changed for the fireworks.

Catamaran Races

We arrived at the Community Boat Docks at about 6 and found seats along the dock and again met new friends for the evening. The Community Boat Docks is a non-profit organization that has docks for sail boats and also teaches a wide range of sailing and they use their dock space for a VIP July 4th party. We were very lucky to find this organization because the rest of the areas along the river were very packed and it would not have been fun.

While we had all the food, soda, water, fruit smoothies that we could consume, we watched thousands flock into the rest of the land to see the Boston Pops and watch the fireworks.

The seating, food, etc. was one of the best we have ever had for a fireworks show; however, we have seen better fireworks.

Sitting on the Dock

They announced that 500,000 were in the park and thousands more lined the river banks!

We only had to walk about 4 blocks and we got lucky and found a cab to take us back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we leave after having a wonderful July 4th vacation. Boston has been the best town and we wish we had a couple more days but we will be home tomorrow.
We hope to go to the JFK Library before the plane so good night from Boston.

Food at the fireworks

July 3, 2011 – Day 3

The Trolley

We were up and out of the hotel by 9 and caught the trolley to the first stop which was a 1 hour tour of Boston Harbor.

We sat with a couple who were from Switzerland and enjoyed the start of the morning on the water sightseeing and talking with new friends.

After the boat ride, we took the trolley to see the USS Constitution in the Charleston Navy Yard. This 3-masted sailing ship is still an operational ship in the US Navy and it was fun to tour it.

Then it was on to Trinity Church for a tour. The church is built on thousands of trees that are buried in the ground vertically to form the foundation. As most of Boston is on man-made land, that is how the older building were built.



The Boston Skline



We then took the subway to Fenway Park to tour the home of the Boston Red Socks but it was raining when we got there so we took the subway back into town to Quincy Market which is a huge downtown market made up of lots of food stands and lots of shops.

We ate lobster and shrimp again at a really neat restaurant.

Back to the hotel to change for the dress rehearsal of the Boston Pops.

We had purchased special VIP seats so we only needed to arrive about 2 hours before the start of the concert, which we did and there were supposedly already 100,000 people there.



USS Constitution

When we tried to find our seats, they kept sending us to different gates until at a backstage gate the police office said that we had been a victim of a $200 scam and there were no VIP tickets!!

Were we crushed; however, we went back to a special seating area and met a really nice guy named Jim who was operating the gate.  Jim called one of the organizers staff over to get the information from our tickets, which we bought on line. I later called AMX and the canceled the charge so we haven’t lost any money.

To make a long story short, we ended up sitting in the 10th row with Jim, his wife Tanya and daughter Sophia and had a wonderful concert and what started out so badly ended up fantastic thanks to the generosity of one person who just happened to be controlling the gate that we went to for help.  What an amazing thing they did for us.

Boiling Lobster for dinner

Tomorrow is the fireworks and early on we will to make sure that our tickets for July 4th are valid.  Night - Night



The Boston Pops







Thanks Jim, Tanya and Sophie for making our trip so special!!!