21,396 Steps

January 09, 2020

21,396 Steps

That's how many steps Sonja and I took today around Barcelona.

1,812. That's how many times my knees screamed at me today. 36. That's how many times that damn smart watch of Sonja's told us what a "good job" we were doing. 1. That's the number of splash's that damn watch is going to take into the Mediterranean if it doesn't shut the hell up.

Now that the ibuprofen is kicking in, I can tell you about Barcelona. It's going to be awfully hard to top this city. This made up for every minute of that 24 hour travel day to get here.

Let me take it from the top. You may know that, during every trip we take, I try to hold something back that I don't let Sonja know is coming. A little surprise to keep the anticipation peaked. In Hong Kong, we were walking down a side street when I suddenly stopped and opened a sliding glass window of a display outside a stamp shop which opened a hidden door into a restaurant. In England, I rowed her down Stratford Upon Avon in a canoe. In Saigon, it was a ride through the city on the back of scooters. For this trip, opening night was going to be the surprise.

After that long day of traveling to get here, I told her I was taking her out to dinner. After we showered, she asked me two or three times what she should wear. Each time I told her the people at the restaurant could care less what she was wearing. I even said, "you could go naked and nobody would care." (I was a little surprised at the annoyed glance I got with that one). We headed down the street to the restaurant where I had made reservations.

Dans Le Noir is a chain of restaurants in Europe, Australia and Africa. I think Dans Le Noir translates to "don't bump your shin" because everyone that serves at the restaurant is completely blind. And for that reason, your meal is eaten in complete and total darkness. It is designed to give you a sense of what it is like to be totally blind.

They lead you in with your hand on a shoulder in front of you. Sit you at your table and you can see nothing, nada. You have to feel around to find your plate, silverware and glass on the table. You do not know what they are going to feed you. It's a five-course meal and you have to rely on your other four senses to try and figure out what is going into your mouth (if you can keep it on the fork and hit your mouth). The tastes and textures make you go "hmmm... I think I know what that is. No, maybe it's this." It truly is a remarkable experience and after the two hour meal, they take you out into the light and show you a menu and pictures of what you'd eaten. Some of you may be eating right now and so I won't ruin your meal by telling you what we had. Suffice it to say, it was wonderfully delicious and we'll never, ever, eat that shit again on purpose. We thanked Stevie Wonder and went out into the night.

Here's a photo of our amazing dinner.

Our first full day in Barcelona was spectacular. We left the hotel very early and headed out into the brisk morning headed to the Sagrada Familia.

Ten minutes into our journey, we had to stop for coffee.

If you've ever been here, you know the name Gaudi. This guy apparently didn't get many dates, because he spent his entire life building incredible architect. No way he could have done this if he had any kind of social life.

He began the Sagrada Familia over 100 years ago, knowing that he would never finish it. And it's still under construction today. They don't expect to finish it for another 25 years!

As you come up to this cathedral, the only word that comes out of your mouth is wow. It is massive. It is of such a grand scale. And then you go inside...

And, of course, we had to go to the top. I almost went to one knee in thanks when they told me there was an elevator up. Then they told me there was no elevator down.

One of the most incredible spiral staircases you've ever seen.

In preparation for this trip, I had gotten my fat butt onto the treadmill a few times a week. I knew there was going to be a lot of walking and I didn't want to have to be stopping every 100 yards to catch my breath and eat a chocolate bar. So, I felt pretty comfortable standing at the top of that staircase, ready to head down. I very quickly learned that there was a difference.... a huge difference, between walking uphill for an hour on a treadmill and walking "down" a set of stairs for 15 minutes. I was hitting muscles above my kneecaps that I hadn't hit in 40 years! By the time we got to the bottom, I wanted to crawl into a fetal position and hold my blanket.

A second stop for coffee and a bocadillo con jamon (baguette with ham) and we were good to go again.

You soon learn that Gaudi must have enjoyed his cartoons. His style of architecture was something out of Smurfland. I can easily see him wearing Spongebob underwear.

When we came upon some of his other buildings, there was no doubt who built them. Each was different, but still very characteristic of Gaudi.

No place illustrates his Timothy Leary genes, than Parc Guell. (Sorry, anyone not alive in the 60's will have to google Timothy Leary to get that reference).

With all this "smurfing" we'd been doing, it was time for coffee and a bocadillo.

The streets of Barcelona at times felt like walking in New York city, and at times smelled like NYC. What is that where you can be walking down a very lovely avenue and then, all of a sudden, you smell ass. Can't understand that.

This city was built for walking. Hell, I guess back in the 1300's there weren't too many Harleys or Cadillacs around. Walking it was back then.

Sonja was fascinated by the jamon (ham).

I was fascinated by the historical building fronts.

Sonja was fascinated by the shoes.

I was fascinated by their truth in advertising.

I'm writing this as we travel on the bullet train from Barcelona to Cordoba. Display board says that we are traveling at 300 kilometers per hour. If my math is correct, that would be 1,025 miles per hour. We need these in the U.S. In fact, there's a lot of things from Europe that we need in the U.S. but you don't to get me up on that soap box.

Time for tapas y cerveza.