July 24, 2014, Barcelona, Spain

I should have gotten over the “I can’t trill my Rs” in high school. I really should have. For if I had, I might have been able to actually communicate today without pointing. But, alas, I did not. I am not fluent in Spanish. I’m not even good enough to find out much more than “where is the restroom” or call a taxi. The latter only because “taxi” is the same in English and Spanish.

Other than the language barrier, we had a most fabulous day. We began this morning by finding a bank to change dollars to Euros. For some reason, the Spaniards frown when you try to give them dollars. Perhaps it’s because the exchange rate stinks. Perhaps it’s because dollars have all those faces on them. Faces of some folks that probably weren’t too popular in Europe. Perhaps it’s just because they want Euros to be as confusion gas possible to trip up unsuspecting Americans. Whatever it is, we are now the proud owners of several hundred Euros.

Secondly, we traipsed down to find some lunch. We asked for a menu and were given their recommendation, which turned out to be pretty good honestly, plus we got two free pairs of sunglasses. Souvenirs “purchased”! Score!

Later we took the tour bus, Green Line, to see the sites of the city, hitting the Olympic Village, the beach, and the Timarado, which is a cool mountain with a beautiful cathedral and amusement park on it. We had a good lunch and then headed back for some coffee and dessert.

Barcelona is a vibrant, metropolitan city of about 22,000 acres and a population if about 1.6M people. That’s about 598 people per square foot if you do the math. Only by having so many taller buildings are they able to cram everyone in. It was warm today but the breeze from the Med blew all day, keeping our spirits high. Tomorrow we set sail for Marseille and other points beyond.