We stayed at Hotel 1898 – A nice boutique hotel right in the center of the action on La Rambla. A very comfortable room with a beautiful rooftop terrace and pool and a lower level thermal pool and spa. Ahhhh….such relaxation.
Our room had a quiet side street view – for a few minutes.
We just decided on a mid-morning nap when loud music greeted us from below. Those garage style doors opened to cafes and shops, and waves of street performers made the rounds. Fortunately, the guest services desk allowed us to change to a quieter room location since we were exhausted from our flight.
La Rambla is THE tourist place to be. There is a pedestrian walkway flanked by one-way streets. The picture on the left is from 5:30 AM. (I guess most of the partiers had gone to bed by then.) The photo on the right is in the middle of the afternoon.
We took a Hop-on-Hop-Off tour to get our bearings. Once we learned our way around and confirmed what sites we wanted to explore, we found that it was easier to take the metro or a taxi to a specific destination rather than getting back on the HOHO and riding the loop.
We hopped off for lunch at the marina area. Many restaurants have outdoor seating. We chose the Chicken Bar.
The Columbus Statue and the Whale Sculpture are two tourist landmarks we saw on the HOHO route.
That evening we decided to eat dinner at the cafe in the alley which we could see from our original hotel room. I ordered a chickpea appetizer. Hubby ordered beef tenderloin. Our plan was to spit the plate of assorted fried fish.
It turned out that they were sardines and anchovies. Not exactly what we had in mind. Fortunately there was a gelato stand nearby.
We decided to call it a night early for Barcelona standards. Actually, early by anyone’s standards. Jet lag is cruel, and I needed to let my body recuperate because I had a full day planned for Day 2. Gaudi’s Architecture.