Tuesday, June 17

And today, we slowed it down even more.  Got an even later start, made it down to one of Barcelona's famous beaches and sat and watched the waves for about an hour.  Even took turns making it into the water and found it was really refreshing once you got used to the coolness.  The beaches are all strung together along Barcelona's coastline and we went to Barconaleta, mostly because it was accessible via the Metro:

We took turns going into the water and taking photos of each other.  This is the Mediterranean Sea, after all and how often would we ever be able to get into the Mediterranean?  The various web sites warn you not to leave your stuff unattended, so we didn't.  Plus we left everything of any import home and only took a little cash.  Once we got there, we could see that all would probably have been quite okay.  A mix of families with little kids, young couples just soaking up the sun and people just having fun.  There were a few topless women.  No one seemed to care; it was all taken in stride.  One more heavyset woman, proudly strolled along the water's edge, completely naked from the waist up.  Good for her and her self-confidence.

I think we could have gone into the water together, but we were fine.  Neither of us are swimmers, so standing there is pretty good for us.

First Gene went in:

 

 

 

And then it was my turn:

 

 

As I came out of the water, I did notice Mr Gene had the camera suspiciously pointed to his right as he looked at me.  The brat was trying to take a photo of the young woman sun-bathing topless next to us!  Unfortunately, he was too nonchalant and the sun prevented him from getting a clean picture through the lens, so all he got was:

I had better luck:

A walk down LaRambla -- it's become our go-to spot -- for dinner, to make reservations for a flamenco show tomorrow night, some fruit & chocolate truffles & ice cream from the open market there, then back to our street.  There we picked up soda & a little more fruit and back to the apartment.  It had started to rain by that time but waited until we were inside before the skies really opened up and treated us to a good old-fashioned thunderstorm for about an hour.  Our balcony has shades coming down and giving us a little shelter & privacy, so we were able to keep the sliding glass door open and let the cool air in and listened to the sound of heavy rain.

Tomorrow is our last day.  Nothing is planned.  We'll work our way out of the apartment, but for what reason, we haven't figured out yet.  Maybe just to enjoy a final walk-around.  We really got to know Barcelona much better this time around. 

Reminds me of David Tennant's first appearance as The Doctor.  Before the 9th Doctor regenerated, he spoke of taking Rose, his companion somewhere and rattled off a bunch of cities including Barcelona.  But alas, the regeneration occurred and suddenly Christopher Eccleston morphed into David Tennant.  He checked out his ears and nose & hair (not ginger!  Why can't I have ginger!) and then said "Now where was I?  Oh yes:  

BAAAR CE LOOOOOON AAAAAH !!!!

I could never hear "Barcelona" without thinking of his exaggerated pronunciation and now I will always pronounce it that way.  (apologies to non-Dr Who fans out there who don't know WTF I'm talking about.)

Steps today:   13,092
Total for trip:  257,631

whoo hoo!!!  A quarter-million steps left in Europe.

Tomorrow is just icing on the cake.