Thursday, May 31, 2012

Spain --- Pictures

It turns out that I didn't notice the sneaky new Google + picture link vs the now buried Picasa picture link.  Here is a summary of all our pics from Spain:

- Barcelona
- Granada
- Seville
- Madrid

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Days 10-13 - Hardest Working Governor

Days 10 - 13 - Hardest Working Governor

Monday morning I went from vacation mode to work mode.  I put on a suit and headed downstairs for the welcome reception luncheon.  From that point forward the days were pretty much the same:

Morning - Breakfast Meeting
Mid-Morning - 2 hours free time
1:30 ish - Luncheon (tons of food and plenty of wine)
3-7 - Free time
7 to 9 - Pre-Dinner Reception (with tons of food and wine)
9 on - Free time,,, we would go out with friends from Enterprise Florida and do dinner, drinks, etc.

It was great to reconnect with friends on the board as well as to have met some new ones.  This blog, thus far, has been all about our travels but now I'm going to get a bit political on you.

The only upsetting part of the trip were the news stories.  I read a few reports that suggested Governor Scott was taking a free vacation for him and his staff on the tax payer's dime.  This is a guy who is worth over 200 million, he takes $1 a year salary, he flies himself and his staff around Florida on his own private plane paying 100% of the expenses, etc etc.  The media really does a number on him.  I knew folks that worked for Charlie Crist and they would mock him behind his back.  In this case, it was the exact opposite.  Here are a few comments from his staff:

"I will always tell the Governor; here is the right thing to do, here is the political thing to do and here is a middle of the road solution.  He always chooses the right thing to do."

"He is the hardest working Governor I've ever worked for.  I have trouble keeping up."

"He hasn't taken a day off since starting the job."

"He is out the door by 7 AM on some days,, 6 AM most other days,,, and he is home no sooner then 8 PM but most of the times after that."

Before being on the board of Enterprise Florida I didn't have much of an opinion of Rick Scott.  I knew the media hated him but that was about it.  After attending the meetings and paying more attention, it became clear to me that his biggest problem is communicating to the media.  He isn't a politician, he's a CEO and he is running Florida like a business.  He doesn't spend his days pandering to the media, he works on making Florida the best place to live and do business.  The people he has put in charge of the various departments aren't there because he owed them a favor (as is the case with most politicians), they are there because they are the best at what they do.  He has recruited the best people from around the country to come work for Florida just as any CEO recruits the best employees to come make their business succeed.

I will also tell you he is all about jobs.  He has cut taxes for corporations, cut regulations, balanced our budget and, because of his leadership and that of the good people in the house and senate, Florida has added almost 100,000 private sector jobs while losing 12,000 government jobs.  A small efficient government is what's best for small business and small business is what's best for our state and our country.

In Madrid the Governor meet with us three times a day but, during our free time, he was meeting with other heads of state, heads of corporations and even the King of Spain.  He didn't have a free minute to stop and smell the roses.  At every meeting he went over the reasons why Florida is THE best state for them do business in.  Anyone who suggests he's here for a free vacation is very ignorant of his schedule.  I could go on and on but, to sum it up, we have the hardest working Governor in the country,,, no doubt.

Katie and I are back on the plane getting ready to head to Philadelphia on our way to Tampa.  This has been an amazing second honeymoon, we couldn't have had a better time.  Thank you all for reading and be sure to subscribe to the blog,,, we'll try to keep updating it throughout the summer as we head to the Bahamas on the boat trip, Colorado for July, Paris in August, the National Convention in late August and then Ireland in early September.  Stay tuned!

--J

Day 9 - Flying Low

Day 9 - Sunday May 20th - Flying Low

First stop,,,, breakfast.  Katie and I made our way downstairs to the breakfast buffet.  I think the hotel was a little bit overwhelmed with the number of people that were showing up to eat.  I guess all of the wedding folks were waking up as late as we were.

Our car was coming at 12:30 so we figured we had some time to spend around town.  We were told that the Plaza de Espanya is not to be missed.  We found it on Google and walked over there.  Everyone who told us about Plaza de Espanya was right.  They built this place for the 1929 World's Fair.  We walked right up to the front door, up the front steps and in to the courtyard.  This place is huge!  Check out the pictures.

After walking around the Plaza we headed back to the hotel to pack our bags.  Our driver picked us up and we were off to the train station.  At the train station there wasn't anyone to help us get the bags from the car to the train.  Unlike an airport, there are no luggage handlers nor a street side checkin.  We figured how to make it work and we headed in to find our train.

The train station is enormous and very impressive.  We found our gate and headed down the ramp to the train.  Security was a piece of cake.  As we approached the train we just had to throw our bags on the belt, walk through a metal detector (clothes, belt, shoes, etc --- all stay on), grab our bags and walk another 25 yards to the train.  We handed our bags to the luggage handlers and walked the length of the train to find our car.

Inside we were both impressed.  We were sitting in business class so we had plenty of room to ourselves.  We set our stuff down and made our way to the bar for a drink.  Just as we were getting back to our seats it dawned on me,,,,, there is no one yelling at us.  Other than a short announcement after we started moving, no one was on the microphone speaking just to hear themselves speak.  They didn't try to sell us a frequent flier (rider) visa card or tell us which bathrooms to use, etc.  It was a nice change from the commercial travel we have all become so accustom to.  Another notable difference is that there are no seat belts and you are "free to move about the cabin" at anytime including while stopped, while starting and while at full speed.

Two and half hours later we arrived in Madrid.  The ride felt like ten minutes because we were having so much fun.  In Madrid we retrieved our luggage and dragged it through the airport to where our driver was waiting with a "Mr./Mrs. Biter" sign.  We handed him our luggage and followed him to the car.  Twenty minutes later were at the Westin Palace in downtown Madrid.

After a quick check-in, Katie and I went on a walking tour.  It had started to rain so we just jumped from one bar/tapas joint to another.  Around midnight we made our way back to the hotel bar where we hung out for a few glasses of wine before hitting the sack.

The rest of Enterprise Florida, including Governor Scott, arrive tomorrow so basically the vacation is over.  I'll write a summary blog after the four days of our mission.  Stay tuned!

--J

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Day 8 - One More Notch

Day 8 - Saturday in Seville - One More Notch

Today we woke up early,,,, well,,, early for us.  9:30 AM.  We were so happy to know our tour wasn't until 2 PM.  We went down for breakfast and enjoyed the buffet they had laid out.  After breakfast we hit the town to do some shopping.  First stop,,, Vodafone.  We had bought Katie a phone and it wasn't working so we got to enjoy some more quality time at the phone store.  After that we strolled from store to store.  There are no shortage of stores here in Seville.  Furthermore, the stores here aren't your typical "I see it everywhere" store,,, nor are they junk stores (some are).  It was a nice mix.

Around 1 we decided breakfast had worn off so we had to do it,,,,, we had to eat at McDonalds.  Just to compare it to the ones in the US.  I'm not sure if it's the case everywhere but this McDonalds was EXACTLY like the ones back home (not that we eat at McDonalds a lot).  After some more walking around we headed back to the hotel where we met our guide at 2 PM.  Speaking of the hotel,,,, this place is AWESOME.  It has the most unique elevator we've ever seen.  The elevator is kind of like an elevator you'd find in a private residence,,, you know, with the gate that closes before you go up or down.  The only difference is that in this elevator the gate closes for you and it's not a gate, it's three wood panels with mirrors.  I can't believe how well it functions (see the video if you're really interested to know more).

Our guide, Marianna, was very nice.  She took us around to some of her favorite shops and tapas restaurants while we made our way to the BIG church in the middle of town, the Seville Cathedral.  We learned that this church is the third largest in the world and it was easy to see why.  This place is HUGE.  Katie and I walked up the bell tower which happens to be the tallest building in town.  We could see to the four corners of Seville, it was spectacular.  After the Cathedral tour we toured an old palace called the Alcazar.  The Alcazar was pretty amazing but after four hours of touring we were done.

Katie and I said our goodbyes to Marianna and we headed for some tapas and cervezas.  We went to Marianna's favorite place in town and it turned out to be very good.  After a quick bite to eat we walked back to the hotel to get ready for a night on the town.  I realized, while getting dressed, I gave up a notch in my belt to the tapas gods.  No buena.  It's full-on diet starting Thursday night when we get home.

Before heading out I had about an hour long phone call, work related,,, and then it was go time.  We started at the hotel tapas bar and ordered a few drinks and a few tapas.  The food was ok but the bar tender was a little dry so we were ready to move on.  While we were there the sound coming from the other room was incredible.  We peeked our heads in to find a wedding taking place.  Those folks were having a ton of fun (we decided not to crash it though).

We took Marianna's advice and we decided to cross the river to see a different part of town.  We realized we crossed the wrong bridge so we walked up the other side of the river through a part of town that is obviously inhabited by the locals.  It seemed very poor yet there was a lot of happy, safe looking people around.  At one point we came upon a bunch of kids (keep in mind it's 9 PM at night) singing songs and playing games on the sidewalk.

We made our way to another one of Marianna's favorite tapas joints, Blanca Paloma (the White Dove).  The bar tender didn't speak a lick of English.  Thankfully Katie's Spanish has been improving by the day and we were able to communicate.  The bar tender ended up being a lot of fun as did the challenge of figuring out what we were ordering (neither of us wanted another Blood Sausage episode).  Each of the tapas we ordered were amazing,,, my favorite being the goat cheese with jam and nuts.

After that place we made our way back across the proper bridge and we walked through town looking for a fun place to hang out.  We finally found a dimly lit bar (they crank the lights in every venue here) and we hung out for a bit.  After a while we headed back to the hotel for a glass of wine before bed.  It was around mid-night when we showed up and our favorite bar tender was there again.  We chatted with her for about two hours,,,, closing time,,, and then headed to bed.  Tomorrow we head for Madrid,,,, high-speed train, here we come.

In case you missed it, here is the link to the pictures:
https://plus.google.com/photos/113169248147362226921/albums/5744418506085215281


-J



Saturday, May 19, 2012

Day 7 - Why are you Honking at Me?

Day 7 - Friday May 18th - Why are you Honking at Me?

Today we let the sun and sounds of outside (easily heard from our hotel) wake us up.  It was about 10 AM that we finally got out of bed and made our way downstairs for breakfast.  It was a fantastic morning and the breakfast (chicken curry sandwich) really hit the spot.  After breakfast we went back to the room and packed our bags for Seville (Say-Vill-Ah).  It was about 11:30 AM when we hopped in a taxi for the "10 minute" (took 25) ride to the Avis store.  After renting a car, we headed back to the hotel to load up our luggage and get on the road.  It was about 12:45 before we finally got going.

The goal was to drive from Granada to Seville but we decided to take the long route.  Instead of going 2 hours West / North West, we decided to add about 2 hours of driving and head south to the coast and drive along the coast before heading north to Seville.  I can honestly say it was worth every minute,,,, in fact,,, I would have done it again even if the drive was 4 hours longer.

The southern coast along Spain is amazing.  It reminded me a lot of California but with nice beaches and topless women.  We drove through a few towns but only stopped in one cute little town called Nerja.  We tried to compare each town we drove through to things we've seen on other travels.  We drove through some small towns that reminded us of beaches on Hawaii and on the Florida pan handle but Nerja was more like a New Jersey beach town.  There were a lot of hotels, some nicer than others,,,,, a decent board walk, cold water, people playing on the beach, people that don't speak English, etc.

After lunch we hopped back in the car and headed strait to Seville.  When we arrived I figured we would expedite the check-in process so I had Katie check-in while I retuned the car.  Google Maps is great but it's not perfect.  I left the hotel and the nice lady in my phone said "turn on (some Spanish street name neither she nor I could pronounce properly),,,, well I did,,, I followed her blindly as I've learned to do in the US.  Guess what,,, wrong way on a one way street.  Guess who was the dumb American lost in a big city,,,, this guy.  I quickly figured out why everyone was honking at me.

I got back on track and made my way across town to return the car.  I jumped in a taxi and, before too long, I was back at the hotel.  When I got to the room I was pleasantly surprised to find Katie happier than a smoker in Spain.  She was so excited about our room and I quickly learned why.  The room is amazing as is the entire hotel.  We made our way to the hotel bar to accept our "welcome" drinks.  After that we hit the town.

This town is amazing,,,, so far,,,,, by far,,, our favorite.  People were out and about much later than we could hang (and we lasted until about 2 AM).  The bars, the tapas, the people, etc --- all amazing (see the pics).  Before bed we went to the hotel bar and chatted with the bartender, a sweet 19 year old girl who spoke 5 languages.  Her main language is Spanish but her English is amazing.  We had a few glasses of wine during our free Spanish lesson.  Before long we headed up to our room and called it quits.

Tomorrow we get to explore this amazing town,,, I can't wait.

--J

Additional pics from the day before I finally got uploaded:
https://plus.google.com/photos/113169248147362226921/albums/5743533771220223105

Pics from Seville:
https://plus.google.com/photos/113169248147362226921/albums/5744418506085215281

Friday, May 18, 2012

Day 6 - Enough Pig Already

Day 6 - Thursday May 17th - Enough Pig Already

Don't worry,,,, I'm not complaining.  Let me tell you about the day first then I'll get in to the pig comment.  We woke up at 9:45,,,, 15 minutes before our 10 AM appointment.  We hurried to get ready and we made our way downstairs to meet with Pablo, our guide for the next four hours.  Pablo took us on a 10 minute taxi ride to the La Alhambra.  The La Alambra is an old fort that was used by kings in the 13th century and Christians in the 15th century.  It was a nice tour, great views, very interesting, etc --- but after four hours the tour was over and we were on way back to town.  You might be saying "he just summed up a four hour tour in three sentences",,,, yes, you are correct.

We said our goodbyes to Pablo and went on to explore the town some more.  Just one problem,,,,, siesta time!  Everything was closed.  A little piece of advice to you future Spain travelers,,,, schedule your tours from 2 to 6 vs 10 to 2.  This way you can explore the town while everything is open and do the tours while everything is closed.  Katie and I walked around a bit but wile everything was closed but ended up deciding to head back to the hotel for our siesta.

Back at the room I wasn't ready for sleep so I put on the running gear and hit the town.  4.3 miles later I realized this town didn't have anything more to offer than Barcelona.  Back at the room we both got cleaned up and headed out for the night.  First stop, Vodaphone.  It turns out that the Internet isn't "unlimited" and my uploading of pics isn't free.  The Internet at the hotel is beyond slow so I had been using my phone to upload pics.  It worked well but it sucked down 200 Euros fairly quickly.  We recharged my phone and bought Katie a sim card of her own to use.  After that we walked around for a short bit and decided it was time for dinner.

Back to the title,,,,,, Enough Pig Already.... We were done with Jamon (Ham),,, We decided it was time for some sushi.  I was skeptical at first,,,,, Sushi in Spain??? But our guide had told us earlier in the day that the sushi here is very good.  We gave it a shot.  We walked in to a little hole in the wall (seriously, a very tiny place on a back alley).   We woke the only server and she quickly, and very happily, let us choose our table,,,,, they were all empty.  Hmmmmm, starting to look a bit sketchy but ok,,,, we were told it was good.  We sat down,,, ordered some cold sake,,, cold beers and some cold water.   She looked at us like "crazie mericans" --- but oh well,,,, we were determined to have "good time."

Four beers, a few hand rolls and two more sake bottles later,,,, the place had four or five more tables filled (about 40%) and we were having such a good time she thought it best to bring us another bottle of sake on the house,,,, or, as she said,,, "uno mass sake,, no denaro."

After our departure from "everything ham" we headed back to the hotel but, on our way, we found a cute little hole in the wall which was all but packed.  There were two seats at the bar which were calling our names.  We sat down, ordered two beers and struck up a conversation with the people next to us.  They were two girls, one 19 and one 24, both sisters.  The elder is an english teacher here while the younger just started college and is here for a quick trip to visit her sister.  After chatting it up a bit (and enjoying the free tapas), we paid our bill and headed back to the hotel.  Time for bed,,, but wait, the bar is still open,,,, two more glasses of wine (dos vino tinto por favor).

Biff, our waiter, was happy to help us.  It was almost 1 AM,,,, closing time,,, but he quickly grabbed us two glasses of wine and stood around to chat about life in Spain.  Biff speaks four languages and hopes to one day be an actor.  I told him he should be a salesman,,,, he said "that's what my father does" --- hopefully he'll figure out,,, Biff would make a killing as a salesman.

After our wine we headed up to the room and off to bed.  Tomorrow we figure out how to rent a car and we head to Seville (say-veal-ah).  Stay tuned,,, more to come.... -J

BTW,,,, the Internet is "no bueno" in Spain (much better in Cambodia) but here are all the pics I could upload as of this posting:

https://plus.google.com/photos/113169248147362226921/albums/5743533771220223105?authkey=CJSQyajE4PPQ0QE



Ahhh Spain...Mucho Gusto



Ahhh Spain.... Mucho Gusto

It was hard to leave Barcelona - I so enjoyed the architecture, the people, our hotel, and I feel like there was still a lot of the city we did not have a chance to see. (I suppose we’ll have to go back!) I think my favorite thing we did was the “Fat Tire Bike Tour” it was so relaxing, comfortable, & informative. There’s something about riding a bike to the beach and having a glass (or 2..) of sangria that just really works with me….I’m definitely a beach baby. Plus it was fun to see some of the Olympics of ’92 areas.  And begin our tour-de-espana.

Wine tasting was, of course, FANTASTIC!  What a way to spend our 2 year Anniversary!! We rode up the mountain-side (2000 ft above sea level) looking at all the grape vines and so so so many olive trees, the air was crisp and we could just tell it was going to be a wonderful day.  Our driver, Ricardo, was so sweet and would have gone out of his way to make sure everything was perfect for us.  I begged him to come have lunch with us but he insisted it was our anniversary and he will be waiting when we’re done – Is this real life?  Plus the wine was great!  We can now expand our wine collection to start carrying vinos from the Priorat region of Spain….perfecto!  I can’t wait to share our new wine-finds with our friends and family when we return.  Fiesta?

Granada: I’m certain Jesse filled you in on the airport luggage debacle (I haven’t had a chance to read that post.) And to be honest, I don’t get to give my sign of approval on any of the posts (or the pictures!!!) before he lets them out for the world to see.  I did however find a horrible picture he took of me taking a siesta (you didn’t think I took those, right?  Because J hasn’t said anything about my love for siestas, right?) That photo I did get to delete before it was published.  Anyway, we move on to Granada -in my mind Granada was a cute little sea-side town.  I can’t figure out why I thought that but I was wrong.  It’s actually a college town. (Universidad).  It was much bigger than I expected, super busy, and not on the water.  When I mentioned that this wasn’t what I expected (probably only once…or twice…) my sweet husband asked me if maybe I had looked at a map while planning the trip?

Thankfully, even though we walked through the wrong part of town on our first journey (not like going to get jumped by a gang, wrong, just not where all the fun shops and restaurants are.  We were in construction-ville.) we found our way to the great part of town that night.  The town was coming to life and we could see we were going to have fun.  Interestingly, the girls were more dressed up here than in Barcelona.  I guess that’s because it is a college town (I mean, it’s no FSU..).  Which was more fun for me because as you all know I love to get dressed up.

The weather here is much warmer than Barcelona. It is about a 9 hour drive south (thats like Atlanta to Sarasota).  I suppose I didn’t need that Burberry jacket after all!  I’m a bit sad we didn’t really buy anything in BCN or Granada but there’s always the next stop.   I just can’t spend money on things I don’t really like and since we didn’t go into many stores other than electronic ones… I haven’t found much.  Except I did get a bathing suit.  I intend on doing my shopping in Madrid.  Jesse will be in meetings and I will be shopping.  Sounds pretty great to me.

Anyway, we have had nice tapas in Granada (except for THAT ONE, which we are all forbidden to talk about).  Its fun that in this area they are so sweet about making sure you don’t pay for tapas that you can get for free.  For every drink you order you get a free tapas (and typically for us we wanted to order ones that were on the pay-for menu and the servers/bartenders would pick something similar out for us on the free menu). We even had spicy thai chicken w/rice as a tapas at a bar and it was great! And I had an amazing salad yesterday for lunch and I was so grateful for some vegetables! Lettuce, green pepper, carrots, tomatoes, artichokes – yum! This is very much a meat country.  It’ll be a while until I order a ham sandwich (boccadilla de jamon) in the States again.  Or my favorite of theirs ham sammies – the bikini – it’s a grilled ham and cheese…and it’s very good.  But the funny thing is it’s always on the breakfast menu?

Well we are off to Sevilla now – we rented a car and Jesse is driving.  This is going to be fun!!

Salud!

KB

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Day 5 - Black Pudding

Wednesday, May 16th - Barcelona to Granada

Five hours later the alarm was going off,,,, ugh.  Neither of us wanted to get up but we didn't have a choice.  We quickly got ready and went downstairs for a quick breakfast.  Nothing "quick" happens around here but, fortunately for us, breakfast at this Hotel Palace is served buffet style so it was easy for us to run in, grab a bite and run out.  We packed our bags and headed to the lobby.  Our driver was there ready and waiting to take us to the airport.

Katie and I made our way through the airport to the check-in counter.  We waited our turn and got to the check-in counter.  The lady behind the counter was extremely surprised that we had four bags (and they aren't the smallest or lightest bags in the world).  The short story is that we ended up having to pay just over 200 Euros for our additional bags and additional weight.  I was really wishing we had shipped my missing bag to Madrid.

The rest of the board process was fairly normal.  1.5 hours later we were in Granada.  The first thing we noticed was the heat.  WOW.  It's a lot warmer here then in Barcelona.  We grabbed our bags, found our driver and headed to the hotel.  The check-in process went smooth.  We got to our room, changed in to shorts and then headed out on the town to explore.

Siesta time??  I've heard about siesta time,,,,, stores close for a few hours, etc.... They had it in Barcelona but it was nothing like it is here.  The stores just don't close,,,, the town closes.  Other then bars and restaurants, everything was closed.

We ended up stopping at what looked to be an authentic tapas joint.  We were told that this area invented tapas and that tapas here are free with drinks.  The place we found was authentic (more so then what we bargained for) and the tapas were free.  Sweet!  We ordered a few beers and started ordering from the menu.  The waiter didn't speak a word of English so we did our best to communicate.  We just started ordering from the menu, guessing at what we'd like.  At one point we ordered "Morcilla con Brie y Marmalade."  That means Morcilla (which we didn't know what it was and unfortunately do now) with (con) Brie (cheese we like) y (and) Marmalade (what we all know and love).  The dish was served on a big toasted baguette.  It looked awesome.  The chunks of stuff we assumed were Morcilla and we guessed it was crush olives (that's what it looked like).  We dug in.  It was awesome but after eating a few bites we knew the Morcilla wasn't crushed olives.  I figured I'd look it up on Google and see what we were eating. Something I should have done prior to ordering or not at all.  It turns out that Morcilla is "Black Pudding",,, which,,,, pudding,,, sounds good, right?  Further translated means "Blood Sausage."  That's about all my stomach can handle for now,,, if you want to learn more just google it.

We did a bit more walking around and figured it was no fun to explore stores that were closed.  We headed back to the hotel where I got a lot of work done and Katie got her daily siesta in.  Around 9 PM we headed back on the town which was surprisingly busy.  We went on a search for dinner but decided we didn't want to settle on the first place we saw.  We made our way to the top of the hill and found a cute little outside tapas/bar,,,, we ordered some drinks and a squid tapas.  We decided one dish was enough from this place so we kept walking, and walking, and walking --- around mid-night we gave up and ordered a pizza.  It ended up working out great --- the pizza was awesome as was the server.  After that we headed back to the hotel for a nightcap on the terrace and then up to bed.  Tomorrow we meet our guide at 10 AM to do some more exploring,,,, stay tuned.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Day 4 - Tuesday, Wine Day

Day 4 - Tuesday, Wine Day

Happy Anniversary to us! May 15th, 2010 (2 years ago), I married the love of my life.  Today,,,,, and everyday,,,, we celebrate.  How do we celebrate today????? the wine country.

The plans were to meet our driver at 9 AM so we set the alarm for 8. However, as it turned out, we didn't need it. We were both excited enough to do the wine country that we woke up at 7:30 without help from the alarm. While Katie showered I headed downstairs to grab some coffees for us. We took our time getting ready and, even though we woke up early, we were still 15 minutes late meeting our driver in the lobby. We met our driver, Ricardo, said our hellos, and then quickly got on the road.

Allison had just emailed me that Spain Customs wouldn't release my bag to me for four days. First, great job Allison for being up at 3 AM to deal with my bag situation and Second, what?!?!? My bag arrived in Barcelona the day before, why couldn't they deliver it to me today? We were set to leave the next day so I had to get my bag today. Allison was having technical difficulties so I called DHL myself and tried to find a solution. As an American I could either wait four days or pay a 550 Euro rush fee. No bueno. Long story (and phone call) short, our driver agreed that we could put the bag in his name and only pay a 135 Euro fee to customs since he is a resident. DHL made this happen and the bag was released from customs. Moral of the story; don't forget your suitcase.  Second moral of the story, don't ship a suitcase to Spain and expect it quickly.

Once again we found ourselves starving since we missed breakfast. Our driver swung in to a fast food joint where Katie and I split a quiche. After that we continued on our way to the higher elevations. The drive to the wine country took two hours. Just before we got there Katie surprised me with an anniversary gift. First she showed me an envelope marked "Katie and Jesse" which ended up being from her Mom. It was a very sweet note describing her happiness that her daughter finally made it to her dream destination, Barcelona. Next, Katie handed me a bag with a card. The card was a very sweet and heartfelt note from her to me. In the bag was a very nice shirt and a pair of very nice shorts. They were both cotton (get it? second anniversary is cotton). I couldn't be more proud and thankful to have such an amazing wife.

We made it !!! The wine country of Spain. We figured it would be best to take some photos prior to the wine starting to flow. We got those out of the way and went inside to meet Carlos, the wine maker. As Carlos started the tour I could tell this wasn't going to be same old wine tour and that Carlos is destined to be one of the more famous wine makers I'll ever meet. I say that because I've never met a person who I felt would and/or has made such an impact on the world of wine as this guy has. When he started speaking I had a hard time following his English 1) because he spoke so fast (because he loves what he does) and 2) because I was so tired from the two hour car ride (anyone that knows me, knows that I'm not much of a car guy unless I'm the one driving). He quickly had me hanging by every word. Carlos and his wife moved to the area in 1979 and bought 135 acres of what was to become the NAPA of Spain. There were only a few wineries when they moved in and, according to him, the wineries were junk. He and his wife set a goal to make a winery that would allow his grandchildren to become famous.

Back in the 70s, on average, it took three generations of wine making before a winery had a chance of becoming famous. Carlos and his wife started in 1979 and it took 10 years for them to get everything right for their first vintage. They produced their first wine in 1989 which they released in 1992 (told ya, I was listening to every word). Within three months of their first vintage the "Wine Spectator" of Europe rated their wine a top rating and one of the best 150 wines in the world. Sales sky rocketed and he's been famous (in his circles) every since.  Robert Mondavi even flew out to see what all the buzz was about.  Here is an exert from their website:

"
In 1979 Carles Pastrana and Mariona Jarque recovered the family winemaking tradition and started off on a long adventure aimed to rescue the old Carthusian wines in the heart of the lands that were once under the dominion of the priors of Scala Dei, a monastery located in the Catalan region of El Priorat. Carles and Mariona created the properties of Clos de l’Obac and Miserere, replanting vines along the banks of the river Siurana in the southern pre-coastal area of Catalonia, and established the Costers del Siurana winery. They began to make their first wines in 1989, reaching an important milestone when the World Wine Guide declared CLOS DE L’OBAC to be one of the world’s 150 best wines.
"

It's not often that you hear of a European entrepreneur breaking the mold and going from rags to riches but, in this case, it happened. Not only did their winery take off, the entire region became a hot bed for new wineries. They started as 1 of 10 and quickly become 1 of 180 wineries in the area. From what we could tell, they were still the top dog (or is it dawg?)  During the tasting Carlos bragged about how his white wine would stand up against any red. He suggested that a person taking a blind taste test would not be able to tell it was white wine.  Katie and I both agreed that the white, while awesome, was obviously a white. He challenged Katie to a blind taste test,,,, and, like the amazing women she is, she accepted the challenge with confidence that she would prevail.

While I ran out to the car to grab Katie's scarf to use as a blind fold, Carlos readied the wine. Out of six wines, 5 red and 1 white, Katie did get the white wine correct. However, she did miss one of the reds thinking it was white. The price per bottle of wine was a tad bit higher then expected but considering the price included shipping to the US, we decided to buy a case. Another impressive aspect of the entire experience was that Carlos and his brother had invented a wine suitcase. They had originally devised a box that would allow travelers to carry wine on any commercial flight. Post 9/11 they had to devise a wine case that could be checked. They created an amazing five bottle wine case that he ended up giving us for free. Perhaps I'm a sucker but I accepted his gift and then, of course, I had to fill it with some wine. We ended up buying two more bottles for us to enjoy ourselves.

More impressive than Carlo's gift to us was what he did at our next stop. Made for Spain (the travel agent company Admiral Travel worked with) had arranged a lunch for us. We went two minutes up the street to a cute little restaurant where lunch awaited us. As soon as we sat down Carlos showed up with a paper bag that included all the wine he had opened for us. It was ours to enjoy with our lunch,,,,, WOW! They served us a six course meal which was amazing (just what we need, more food) and they ensured that our wine glasses didn't get anywhere close to empty.  We finished off the last of each bottle during the two hour lunch extravaganza.

After desert we stumbled outside to meet with our driver Riccardo and head off to our next destination. The next stop was some other winery just up the hill. We showed up and nobody was there to greet us. We ended up finding a grape worker (what else are they? grape crushers, grape processors, grape people, grape stompers, grape juicers?) who told us we had to go down two levels to the shop. Our diver had us hop in the car and he took us down two levels to the front door.

The receptionist / only person working there, was so happy to see us. Ha, who am I kidding, this is Spain,,, however, she did acknowledge our presence which is all you can really ask for. This place was much more NAPA like.  It was very commercial, everything was for sale, etc etc.  We decided to forgo the tour and we went straight to the tasting. At this point it was already 4 PM (WOW, where did the time go?) And, since I still had to get my bag from the airport (or so I thought), we decided to get the tasting over with and get on the road. We asked our driver, Riccardo, to sit with us as we tasted the three wines she gave us. It turns out that Riccardo and I have a lot in common. First, we were both born on April 28th. Riccardo is 47, 11 years older than me, but,,, and this is where it gets good, his wife is 3 years older than him. His wife was born on January 20th. For those of you that don't know, my kids' mom was born on January 21st and she happens to be 3 years older than me. We asked about kids,,,, YUP, two girls, 14 and 18. One more question,,,,, sorry, but I had to ask, "do you and your wife get along?" Riccardo's response,,,, "only when we're sleeping (with a big grin)." I had to leave it at that,,, too funny.

We finished our wine and made for the car. The receptionist chased us out with a surprised look on her face. Si? I said. Her response, in English, "would you like to buy some wine?" I replied "no thank you." It was like she expected us to buy her wine vs her actually taking the time to talk to us, sell her wine, etc. You've gotta love it. Carlos (the wine maker from the first stop) knew how to ensure his customers never left without a case of his wine.  The drive home was long, 2 hours,,,, but, it allowed me to type this (don't judge, I've had a few glasses of wine). Katie is now sitting next to me taking her daily siesta (see the pics in our album). Just as I was taking the picture of Katie I received a message from Lon and Eric (Eric is a good friend who is probably one of DHL's best customers) informing me that my bag was delivered directly to my hotel. Great news! So now we get to head straight to the hotel without the hassle of stopping to find DHL and figure out who has my bag.

Back at the hotel we were both very tired so I decided to join Katie for a siesta.  We woke up around 8 PM and prepped ourselves for our last night on the town.  We walked down to the water and ended up finding a neat little bar/tapas restaurant down one of the side streets.  The menu and the atmosphere so looked good so we went in for dinner.  We ordered a few small plates and a few drinks.  After dinner we did some more walking around and ended up going back to the bar we had been at the day before.  We had a glass of wine but that place died off quickly.   It was around midnight,,,, knowing we had an early morning we decided to call it a night.

As we walked in to our hotel lobby we could hear the live music coming from the bar downstairs.  We decided to check it out.  Although there was only one other couple in the place, the music was good and the bartenders seemed to be having fun.  We decided to stay.  We sat at the bar and chatted it up with the bar tenders.  They were practicing their bar tending tricks which was fun to watch.  About an hour after being there another couple showed up and they started a conversation with us.  We spent the next hour talking about our trip and theirs as well as their hometown, Chicago.   The place closed down at 2 so we headed up to our room to call it a night.  I was lucky enough to get the kids on Skype so Katie and I did that for about 45 minutes.  Afterwards we chatted with Ethan for a few minutes and then turned in around 3.

We will miss Barcelona but we're excited about what's to come.  Stay tuned.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Day 3 - Monday Monday

We must have had too much fun last night at the casino because we ended up going to bed around 3:30 AM and waking up at 10:30. Katie really wanted to do the Fat Tire Bike Tour which started at 11 so we rushed to get ready and then we headed across town to make the 11 AM meeting time. The meeting place for the bike tour is a courtyard in the middle of a bunch of government buildings that you can't drive to. Our taxi got us as close as he could at 10:58 AM, we had to find our way through the maze of buildings with only two minutes to spare. Fortunately we had our sneakers on so we were ready to run. However, we had two problems. Problem 1) we didn't know where we were going and Problem 2) there were so many people,,, like, a LOT of people,,,, imagine the halls of a middle school minutes after the kids were told Justin Beeber was in the auditorium.

We were "politely" passing through a sea of people that were shoulder to shoulder. I say "politely" because we had no idea how to say "excuse me" in Spanish so we just smiled, bobbed our head a little and kept running. We made it to the bike tour meeting place just in time. The group was getting the "how it works" speech just prior to walking over to the shop to pick out a bike. We joined in,,,, caught the end of the speech and went over to select our favorite beach cruiser. I chose the red bike inspired by Pee Wee Herman while Katie chose the yellow bike. I can only assume she chose yellow because she looks good in yellow (well, she looks good in everything).

We quickly realized it was a bad idea to stay out all night, wake up and rush out of the room without food. Right as we were getting our bikes the hunger hit us like a ton of bricks. Fortunately it takes a bit of time to get 15 tourists on the perfect bike and teach them how to shift gears. Sadie, our courageous bike tour leader, suggested we grab a quick bite to eat at a fast food joint just around the corner. I ordered some pig sandwhich on a baggette and 5 minutes later we were on our way to happy stomaches. The tour started out through the tiny streets around the courtyard but on the side of the courtyard with less people then the side we came in on. Regardless, there were still enough people that the less experienced riders were really struggling. It was hysterical to see grandmas on bikes bouncing off of people and structures as we made our way to the first stop. It wasn't too long before everyone on the trip, including those that hadn't ridden a bike in a very long time, were getting the hang of it just fine.

We stopped every 5 to 10 minutes to hear a story about whatever landmark we were in front of. It was interesting and surprisingly relaxing. We weren't biking hard at all and the seats on the bike were like a lazy-boy chair which is good because I forgot my padded bike shorts back in Florida. Mostly on the tour we learned about a famous hometown hero, architecht Antonio Gaudi. This guy designed some pretty crazy stuff about 200 years ago. Towards the middle of the bike tour we arrived at a church that Gaudi had designed but never finished. The city has been working on it for over 50 years and they predict it will take until 2026 to complete. When it's done it will be the tallest church in the world at 176 meters. Sadi explained all of this and then said she would stay with the bikes as the rest of us go explore the church. Katie and I decided to grab a beer at the deli and hang back with Sadi and the rest of the guides to discuss life in Barcelona. After the church we biked down through downtown for the last stop on the tour,,,, the beach.

The beach is manmade with sand from the Sahara Desert. The sand was definitely a far cry from the amazing sand we're used to on Siesta Key. However, the plethera of topless women made up for the lack of high quality sand. We stopped at a neat little bistro on the beach and we ordered pizza and beer (Katie ordered Sangria).  We stayed there for about 30 minutes chatting it up with everyone. The rest of the group had some interesting stories to tell as well as some good suggestions for food and other places to visit. After we were full and tipsy we headed back on the bikes to the shop. The ride from the beach to the shop was just over 10 minutes. We put the bikes away, paid our fare, tipped Sadie, said our goodbyes and headed back on the town to do some more walking around.

This time we walked towards the north side of town where the shops are a lot more upscale. The north part of town has all the usual suspects; Cartier, Tiffanys, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc,,,, there were also a lot of upscale places I had never heard of. In the mix were a few of Gaudi's other designs --- check out the pictures, his designs definitely make for some interesting places. A few hours later the beach food had worn off so we found a neat little hole in the wall to grab some tapas. We ate spicy potatoes, onion rings, cheese poppers and buffalo wings (there went the diet). They also had some great hand crafted beer. We were the only two in the place so we sat at the bar and chatted with the two bar tenders.

After stuffing ourselves (again) we did some more walking around. Katie and I both agreed it was time for a massage so I made the call to the hotel and they set us up for an 8 PM massage. By the time we got back to our room it was 7:10 which meant we didn't have a lot of time to sit around. We took showers and headed down to the spa for our treatments. The spa was nice but I only gave my massage a 6 out of 10. -1 for the bright lights, -1 for having to wear disposable underwear and -2 for the quality of the masseuse. Overall it was worth it. We were back in the room by 9:45 and ready for bed. However, we knew we had the rest of our lives to sleep so we forced ourselves to shower and head back out on the town.

We walked for about 45 minutes before agreeing to eat (yes, we were eating again) at some little hole in the wall tapas joint. We walked in to this dark, small bar which also happened to serve food. It only had 4 menu items but that was all we needed. I ordered a beer, Katie ordered a glass of wine and we split a hamburger and a bean and cheese empanada. We quickly noticed that everyone in the bar was speaking english to each other. The four people next to us were discussing how they are looking forward to a new US President,,,, I felt right at home. After finishing our food and drinks we paid our tab and headed for our room. We decided we had done enough walking for the day and bailed in to a cab. Back at the room I finished my blog from the previous day and posted it for the world to see. I did a few quick emails and then called it a night. Overall it was a great day,,, we accomplished a lot. Stay tuned,,, there is much more to come.

J

PS: see the link below from Saturday for the pics --- I uploaded all the new pics to the same album.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Day 2 - Sunday in Barcelona

Day 2 - Sunday in Barcelona - Self Guided Walking Tour

Today started a bit late as our bodies are still about 6 hours behind.  We woke up around 10 AM and scrambled to get ready for breakfast which ends every morning at 11 AM.  The breakfast room was beautiful and we were very happy with the buffet selection.  After breakfast we headed out on the town for a self-guided walking tour.  We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.  From 11 AM until about 5 PM, we walked all over.  During the walking we ran in to a mother and her two daughters that sat in front of us on the flight over.  We shared a few stories and went on our way.  There are so many neat little sections of town with TONs of great shops.  Being Sunday, a surprisingly large number of stores were closed but there were enough open, ready and willing to take our money.

As breakfast wore off and our hunger set in we decided to find some lunch.  Our guide from the night before had suggested a few places so we picked one on the beach and headed that way.  It took us a little over an hour to work our way there but the walk was pleasant.  We walked from the west side of town and we got to tour the marina as we made our way to the restaurant.  When we got there the line was WAY too long so we decided to eat at a nice looking place across the street called Santa Marta.  Bad move.  Katie ordered the ham and cheese which was good,,, I ordered the chef's surprise.  It was a surprise.  They slapped a dead pig on a roll and almost melted some cheese on it.  Furthermore, they forgot it and Katie was done eating before I finally received it.  If that's the worst thing to happen to us then we're doing pretty good.

In my blog from our first honeymoon I wrote about the differences in cultures from country to county.  We are starting to notice a few things about Spain that sets its culture apart from anything we saw in Asia.  At lunch I ordered a diet coke (Coke Light) and they delivered it with a glass which had only one ice cube in it.  It seems ice is not something they typically offer.  Barcelona is relatively clean but nothing like Tokyo.  The people here are nice but nobody is in a hurry to serve you.  Every restaurant we've been to has had a "we'll get to you when we get to you" attitude towards service.  Knowing that's their culture we have come to accept it,,,, kind of like being on "island time."  Another observation, EVERYONE here smokes.  You can't go anywhere without walking through someone's smoke plume.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel for some down time.  Katie took her siesta and I, trying to keep up with my training for the Aspen 1/2 marathon, went for an 8 mile run.  Running through the city was interesting.  I just turned left or right depending on the lights, traffic, etc.  I saw a lot of neat things that I wish I could have stopped to investigate further.  Because of my random path, I'm not sure I could find those places again (it's a big city).

A couple hours later we were ready for the nightlife.  We got cleaned up and headed off to dinner.  A few people had suggested to us that we eat at Siete Puertas (7 doors).   We showed up around 9 PM and they told us the wait would be about 20 minutes.  They didn't have a bar so we strolled down 1/2 a block to a little bar called Casa Tomaso which ended up being a lot of fun.  We grabbed a drink and headed back to Siete Puertas,,, they seated us right away.   The food and service were amazing.  Sieta Puertas is a beautiful restaurant with white glove service so we expected to spend a lot of money.  I ordered what I thought was a glass of wine for 14 Euros and Katie ordered what she thought was a glass of Champagne for 12.  It turns out we ordered the entire bottles.  We ordered salads and split the Paella - it was awesome.  I agree with everyone who recommended this place.  For desert we split some ice-cream concoction and then headed out.  The bill was surprisingly cheap.  Just before leaving we ran in to the same mother and her daughters that we met earlier in the day.  I guess they received recommendations to eat there as well.

After dinner we headed to the casino, this time we were armed with our passports.  The walk to the casino was a bit further then we really cared to walk so we hopped on a pedi-cab.  Our "driver" spoke five different languages and worked from home as a translator during the day.  He does the bike taxi at night to meet people and stay in shape.  Go him.  At the casino they welcomed us in and we made it to the poker / blackjack room.  The folks at our table were a lot of fun.  No one at the table spoke english but we all knew how to play the game.  We knew when to yell and when to complain.  The rules here are a little different then in the US (or the Bahamas).  You are not allowed to double unless you have a 9,10 or 11.  The dealer doesn't take his second card until all the play is finished (they don't check for blackjack before you play your hand).  Another interesting aspect is that it's common practice to play on anyone else's hand.  Even people without a seat will stand behind you and play on your hand without even saying a word.  We had a ton of fun and ended up leaving down just a few Euros.  After that we headed home and called it a night.  I uploaded pictures from the day to the Barcelona folder (see link below).

More to come,,,,, stay tuned!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Katie's Day 1 - Honeymoon Part Dos


"This is really happening" I say to myself, we are really boarding the
flight to Barcelona! My dream vacation!  Not only have I always wanted
to go to Barcelona, I get to go with the love of my life AND he's all
mine for two weeks! Unbelievable! :)

We were about an hour from landing at BCN and I was like a kid in a
candy shop (or myself as a grown-up in a candy shop for that matter).
I had my bags neatly put back together, changed into my "day in
Barcelona" outfit, and touched up my make-up.  I was ready.

I knew this was a wonderful city as soon as we stepped foot outside --
and it hasn't stopped amazing me since.  First off, the weather is
absolutely amazing. Its like 75 with a breeze...beautiful! Spain in
May? Yes, please! We walked around all day (9am-2pm) neither hot nor
cold.  Anyway, Jesse is great at all the details so I'll let him stick
to that and I'll just give you my observation of the city...

1. Its pretty clean - not Chicago clean but not nearly New York City
dirty. Although it smells a bit like NYC, you know a little sewage
smell here a little college bar smell there. But your sense of sight
is so delighted its easy to dismiss the smells. That leads me to the
architecture, Wow.

2. Almost every structure is beautiful.  I have taken many pictures of
all the buildings.  I love all the balconies.  You can tell that way
back when someone(s) spent a lot of time on the development of these
buildings - and that was a good choice. Even the buildings tucked back
in the ally's are beautiful. In the streets there are gorgeous
fountains in the round-abouts. Of course Barcelona is famous for it's
Gaudi and Picasso buildings (and they are incredible!). We haven't
seen them all yet but they're on the to-see list.

3. They are so many dogs here!!! Which, if you recall, is very
different from our Asia trip. It's so great to see all the pretty dogs
having so much fun running (literally) around with their owners. And
interestingly they are hardly on a leash. (We have honestly only seen
one dog on a leash) Even the people that are jogging with their dogs
don't have them on a leash. Amazingly the dogs, small and large, just
follow their owners - unleashed.  Apparently there is no leash law
around here but doesn't seem they need it. And that makes my heart
happy.

4. Lastly, (for now) this doesn't seem to be a real service industry
country. Our first meal here the waiter acted as if he could have
cared less if we ate there or not. I guess since they don't make their
living off of tips they don't go out of their way to be polite or
expedient. Oh well, at least the food has been outstanding.

I'd also like to add that I have had SO much fun speaking Spanish!!
Jovanna, you would be proud! We learned yesterday that in Barcelona
they actually speak Catalonian which is a combination of Spanish,
Italian, and French. But it all sounds the same to us.

Thanks for tuning into our blog again and say a prayer for us for safe travels!

Salud!

Honeymoon Part Dos - Day 1

Honeymoon Part Dos

Day 1 - Travelling to the Future

Well,,,, here we go again, Honeymoon Part Dos.  Actually, Katie and I discussed if our trip last year to the Bahamas for one night counted as an annual Honeymoon getaway.  We ultimately decided it did but that since 5/15/12 is our second anniversary we'd count this as our second honeymoon.  At the request of many, including Katie, I'm going to blog daily about our adventure.  Sooooooo, here we go:

We left our house at 11 AM, Friday May 11th.  I had a 10 AM meeting and had just arrived back at the condo where Dave and Katie were waiting.  I ass-u-me-d that we were all set so I parked my car, hopped in the SUV and we were off.  Dave wanted us to see some lights for the building project so we took a detour on our way to Tampa to visit the LED light store.  After a quick stop we continued to the airport.  About 10 minutes before arriving at Tampa International Katie asked if I had packed the garment bag (insert heart stopping sound here).  I figured she would have grabbed it but I had neglected to leave it by the door where I told her all my stuff was at,,,, ready and waiting to go.  I made a quick call to Allison but it was already too late, it wasn't coming with us.  Allison ran to DHL and sent it off so hopefully we'll have it here by Monday.  It turns out that shipping a suitcase RUSH from Sarasota to Barcelona isn't cheap.

Check in was a breeze, as it usually is in Tampa, and Katie and I headed to Chilis for some pre-flight margaritas.  Our plane was about 30 minutes delayed taking off (darn, there would have been time to receive the bag in Tampa), but it was of no consequence.  I had booked the flights so that we would have plenty of time in Philadelphia to change planes and catch our non-stop to Barcelona.   We landed in Philly, made another pub stop, and then boarded our plane.  The US-Air attendants are typically the worst in the business.  On the way from Tampa to Philadelphia they proved they still hold the title.  However, the ones on our international flight were as nice as could be.  They welcomed us with champagne and orangejuice along with a menu for dinner.  We took off Friday night at 6:30 PM (Saturday 12:30 AM Barcelona time), and we were on our way.

The flight was fantastic despite the fact we had a family of 4 (including a lap child) behind us.  The baby cried for 10 minutes and then was quiet the entire remainder of the trip.  The food was as good as airline food can get.  Katie enjoyed champagne while I took them up on their Spanish Red (Rojo) wine offer.  I was also pleasantly surprised by their list of recently released movies.  There were at least six movies I hadn't seen that are on my "Movies to Watch" list.  We choose "In Time" staring Justin Timberlake.  Although it wasn't my favorite movie, I love JT and overall it was worth watching.  Katie made it to the end of the movie but she was soon asleep after that.  I wasn't a bit tired so I stayed awake for another movie on my list "Jack and Jill" staring Adam Sandler and Adam Sandler (he plays both parts).  It was a great movie.  At the end of the movie I brushed my teeth, reclined my seat which went completely flat (nice) and I drifted off to sleep.

An hour before landing I was woken by the sound of breakfast being served.  I begrudgingly got myself up to enjoy some breakfast and prepare for landing.  Breakfast wasn't nearly as good as dinner but it was edible.  We landed shortly after breakfast and made our way to clear customs.

Clearing customs was by the far the easiest I've ever experienced.  We walked in to a large area with little toll booths setup for each passenger to clear through.  We picked a line with only two people in it.  In about 15 seconds it was our turn.  We handed the guard our passports, he found an empty page, stamped it and handed them back to us,,,,, "NEXT."  That was it.  He didn't scan them, he didn't ask us any questions, there were no forms to fill out, etc.  We were off to bagage claim.  Bagage claim was FAR less impressive.  It took about 35 minutes for the bags to finally make it to the carrousel.  Our bags were just about the first ones off.  We grabbed them and headed straight for the exit.  Just outside we found our driver holding a sign that read "M/M Biter."  He grabbed our bags, pointed us to the car (a Mercedes Van) and we were quickly on our way to the hotel.

We arrived at our hotel 20 minutes later.  "Mr. Biter, we have good news and bad news."  We arrived at our hotel at 8:30 AM and our room wasn't ready (bad news).  However, they gave us a free upgrade to their "Junior Suite" --- (good news).  We checked our bags at the bell desk and proceeded to walk around town.  None of the stores were open at this point so we found a nice little outdoor bistro where we stopped for another, and much better, breakfast.  At 10 AM the stores were all open so we continued to walk and shop our way around town.  The mission of the day,,,,,, find a cell phone.  Our Verizon phones don't work here and being out of touch just isn't an option.

A few hours in to the phone shopping Katie and I were ready to do something else.  We went to a few different stores trying to find some solid answers on how the system works around here.  One thing is for certain,,,, there are more english speaking people in Asia then there are here (by a lot).  None of the phone stores had a pre-paid smart phone that I wanted so I ended up going to one of those "everything electronic" stores.  You know the ones, with all the crap loaded up in the front window and all the stereos, speakers and,,, suitcases?, stacked in the back.  I bought a nice Samsung smart phone which was "unlocked." I inserted the pre-paid sim card I purchased just earlier from Vodaphone.  Like magic I was back in business.  For 4 Euros a week I now have unlimited high-speed Internet and, with the pre-paid card, I have 200 minutes to call anywhere in the world.  I plugged in my Gmail account and 10 minutes later I had all my contacts, calendar entries and emails downloaded to the new phone.  Technology is great.

After the 2 hour phone shopping spree, Katie and I headed to a brewpub that was recommended to us by our Vodaphone rep.  It ended up being as good as he described.  After lunch we continued to shop our way back to the hotel.  Upon arrival we were told our room was ready and they graciously escorted us and our luggage to the room.   They showed us around the room, as they seem to like to do anywhere but in the US, and left us to ourselves.  Katie was excited to get a siesta in while I was excited to take a shower.  The weather is perfect but after sleeping in the same clothes I just walked around town in, I was ready for a nice long shower and some fresh clothes.

Katie slept for about 2 hours while I spent that time trying to get my phone's voicemail from Spanish to English.  What sounds easy was indeed not.  The instructions to do this task are to dial "123" from the phone and ask a rep to change it for you.  Well, "123" dumps you in to a spanish only phone menu.  No "Press 1 for English" option,,,, I guess Americans are the only ones to offer this feature.  I finally figured out how to get an operator on the line (no, it's not as easy as just hitting 0).  However, each time I got someone on the line they didn't know how to speak english and would eventually just hang up on me.  This became comical.  I found an online app that would speak in spanish what I typed in english.  I gave it a shot but it ended in them laughing and still hanging up on me.  They would rattle something off in rapid-fire spanish and then transfer me to another spanish phone que that would just say a bunch of stuff in spanish then just end the call.  I gave up.

Katie woke from her coma (2 hour nap) and we both got ready for dinner.  Our dinner guide was meeting us downstairs at 8:30 PM so we went a bit early to enjoy some drinks at the bar.  WOW, drinks aren't cheap. A single shot vodka on the rocks is 16 Euros (almost $20).  Four drinks and 70 Euros later, it was time to go.  Our guide "Carlos" pronounced "Car"--"Less" was waiting for us in the lobby.  We said our hellos and then went outside to meet the driver.  The driver was caught in some sort of traffic so we stood around for 45 minutes just chatting.  It ended up working out because we were able to learn a lot from him and he was able to call "123" for me and get my phone converted to english,,,, YAY.

Our guide took us to two of his favorite tapas restaurants.  At one point he went on for 10 minutes explaining to us what tapas are.  I guess he didn't realize we have tapas all over America.  Either way, the restaurants he took us to were amazing.  At one point, while going from one restaurant to the other, we stopped at a palace they built for the 1929 world's fair.  It was amazing.  There were lights, water and loud music all over the place.  You'll have to see the pictures for more detail but everyone there was having a lot of fun.  I even got to do the "welcome to Vegas" drive down the strip standing up through the sunroof.

After the last restaurant he dropped us off at the happening place in town.  We went to one of the clubs but it was dead.  It was 11 PM and I guess the clubs don't get going until 12 or so.  We went to the casino next door but they wouldn't let us in without our passports (a copy wouldn't suffice).  Oh well,,, I had hit the wall although Katie was ready to go (that long nap worked out well for her).  We ended up calling it a night and took a taxi back to our hotel.  At the hotel there was a live cover band playing 70s and 80s music.  We hung around for a night cap then headed off to bed.  Day 1 was over.

Take a look at Day 1 Pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/113169248147362226921/20120511_SpainTripBarcelona?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMKY9fqeiP-OgwE&feat=directlink