Day Sixteen| Saturday 18th August 2018
City: Barcelona, Spain
Accommodation: Barcelona Princess Hotel
Weather: 27
Photo: Meerkat at Barcelona Zoo
Today we woke up around 7:30am after a great sleep, there is so much room in that bed, that we didn’t even notice each other. Breakfast is included in our accommodation cost, and what a breakfast! The buffet had cold meats, smoked salmon, varieties of cheese, bacon, eggs, sausages, roasted vegetables, waffles, pancakes, custard filled crepes, breads, pastries, donuts, eclairs, fruit, salad and I’m sure I’ve missed other items. I was looking forward to tomorrows breakfast while eating todays.
Following breakfast, we headed outside the hotel to purchase tickets for, and board the Barcelona Bus Turistic (Hop On, Hop Off Bus). It was €40 for a two-day pass, so about $60AUD. It’s expensive, but after riding it, we realised how far out it went, as it covers three colour routes, with many stops along the way.
We caught the green route to Port Olimpic, then transferred to the red route. One of the stops was the Museum of Chocolate, I wanted to look into that before visiting. I’ve since been to the website, and although it looks interesting, all the fun activities you can do at an additional cost are booked out for the next 2-14 days, we may give it a miss. Along the route we saw the Barcelona Zoo, and Anthony suggested we visit which we agreed on, and suggested we go back a little later or tomorrow. We passed the stop and continued on up to La Rambla, the main shopping and tourist precinct. We hopped of here and went for a walk, it was very crowded, but we felt more safe here than in Paris. We’ve heard a lot about the dangers in Barcelona, but so far we have had no issues, and feel safe. After walking around for about 20 mins, we headed back to the next bus which arrived, but the line for boarding was very long, so we opted to walk 22 mins to the Zoo, and do that today. The walk was nice, Google Maps had no issues directing us. We passed through Barcelona’s Arc De Triomf, which lead to the zoo entry. Entry to the zoo was about €20 each, but we had a 20% discount voucher which came with the bus ticket.
The zoo is really nice, I think some of the enclosures are a little smaller than the ones I’ve seen back in Adelaide, but the animals don’t seem stressed or mistreated. I won’t go into every detail about the zoo journey, but I did enjoy seeing some animals I have not seen before. My favourites were the meerkats and prairie dogs. Here are a few photos:
It was about 1:45pm when we left the zoo, so we walked to the nearest red route bus stop and hopped back on. We continued to ride that about 90 mins, heading through various sites around Barcelona. Much of the city has been redeveloped or extended due to the 1992 Olympics being held here. The Olympic village apartments where the athletes stay are now residential apartments, the Olympic stadium was part of the route, as were the swimming pools. The Olympics was a massive event for Barcelona, and from the audio commentary along the route, it is known for the point in time where Barcelona really began to change, and it helped bring in the tourists. It now has a very popular cruise ship port, with ships arriving as part of an itinerary, or as a departure point.
We didn’t hop off the bus at any stage during this journey, but we’ve discussed stopping at one or two tomorrow afternoon, as well as joining the blue route. There is a palace which looks quite cool, with a cable car that takes your up there, as it’s up on a hill.
Once we got to the end of the red route, we joined the green route again, which lead us back to the hotel. Once back, it was 4pm and we needed food. On the 23rd floor, the one below our floor, there is a bar and outdoor pool. We stopped of at the bar and shared a nachos and had a drink, before heading out to the pool. I’ll try to get some pool photos tomorrow. I was in the pool immediately, but Anthony decided to sit on the side and have his legs in. The view from the pool is amazing, it looks over to the ocean with sailing boats in the water, and cruise ships in the distance, and the water is so blue. We stayed out here for about 45mins, then came back in as the sun began to be hidden by the clouds, cooling the temperature down.
After a shower and change of clothes, we did a quick stop at the supermarket (Supermercat) to get a few supplies.
For dinner, we looked at a Tapas bar near the hotel, but it was very busy, and people were already waiting in line for a table. So we opted to head back to the hotel, as there is a bar\restaraunt on the 3rd floor by another pool, with the same views as the 23rd floor pool. We sat inside, as outside had too many smokers, like France, Barcelona also has a lot of smokers. I don’t think they could ever bring in a ban on smoking in outdoor dining like we have in Australia. For dinner we had the Pollo Catalana (we both had the same main meal), a side of fries, and for dessert I had the Coulant de Chocolat (like a chocolate lava cake) with nougat ice cream, and Anthony had the Crema Catalan (caramel tart with lemon sorbet). I also had a Pina Colada, and Anthony a couple of glasses of Rose Jean L Copa.
We’re going to keep tomorrow as a relaxing day if we can, so we may head to the beach in the morning before getting back on the bus and seeing more sights.
tomothy travels 