Gelati: 0, Beer: 5 glasses, Tapas: 3
Spent the early part of the morning pottering around, getting my bearings. When we are out with Vanessa she guides us and I don't get a chance to look at a map and find out where I am. I think I have a rough idea now. I also visited the cathedral which is opposite my hotel (not the Sagrada Familia). Churches have gone hi-tech now. Instead of lighting an actual wax candle, you put a coin in a slot below a bank of electric "candles". One coin lights up one candle. The length of time it stays lit depends on the value of the coin. I put in 10 cents to St Mark to see how the system worked (he needed dusting).
Since finishing the hiking tour my breakfasts have not been included in the price of my hotel room. My hotel in Seville had a reasonably priced and well supplied buffet for breakfast so I just ate there. All the others either haven't provided breakfast or charge too much, so I've been choosing random bars and eating there. My Spanish has improved to the point where I can be confident of getting what I order. Unfortunately, to achieve this means limiting myself to coffee with milk and either toast or a croissant.
Around mid-morning I met up with the others and we went to the chocolate museum. The entry ticket was printed on the wrapper of a small bar of (dark) chocolate. Inside were many displays, 3 short movies on the history of chocolate and lots and lots of sculptures made in chocolate. There was also a gallery of famous chocolatiers being honoured. However, they were being honoured for their ability to make chocolate sculptures, which I think is a fairly useless skill. I would have been more impressed if they were honoured for their advances in the making of chocolates and chocolate bars. After buying carefully chosen samples from the gift shop (mine were black cherry, spices, almond milk, and ginger) we reluctantly left. The smell of the place was wonderful.
We then headed off to a shoe museum but stopped along the way as Generoso wanted to buy some souvenir t-shirts. He haggled in one shop for a soccer top but they couldn't agree on a price so we moved onto the next. He haggled even more vigorously there and got the item for what he considered was the right price. He spoke Italian and they replied in Spanish but both seemed to understand one another. Vanessa and I each bought t-shirts after that. We got offered good prices for both. I think they were worried we'd sic Generoso on them if they didn't and they make an even smaller profit. It would never have occurred to me to haggle in one of those souvenir shops but they were clearly expecting it. Just as clearly Generoso had the most fun of this holiday doing so.
Next on the itinerary was the shoe museum. Generoso skipped it and sat in the plaza outside, which earned him some odd looks as it also doubled as the playground for the local primary school and it was their morning break. The museum is quite small and obviously doesn't get many visitors as the man running it was thrilled to see us. He kept popping in to the museum itself from the ticket counter to explain things to us. This was a lovely gesture but largely futile as he spoke Catalan and none of us do. Vanessa could follow some of it but Rachele and I just smiled and nodded a lot. What struck me most about the displays was how small people's feet used to be. Not just short but narrow. Either that or else shoes were very badly fitting and everyone had horrible bunions.
After this we stopped for lunch at a randomly chosen place and had the menu of the day. To start with Generoso and I had broad beans cooked with chunks of jamon and blood sausage, Rachele had eggplant stuffed with (pork?) mince and topped with bechamel sauce and cheese while poor Vanessa had a mixed salad (the only veggie option). For main I had meatballs in sauce, Rachele and Generoso had the pork chops with chips and Vanessa settled on fish and chips. She's converted to being a pescatarian as it is impossible to be vegetarian in Spain. Dessert was flan (aka creme caramel) all round.
After lunch we tottered off to see the Sagrada Familia. It is supremely ugly but so ugly it is also impressive. What as also impressive was the price to get inside and the enormous queue. We marvelled at it from the outside, took many pictures and moved on.
Our next stop (all our travelling was by Metro today) was supposed to be a flea market that my guide book said was a "generous sprawl of trash and treasure". What my guide book failed to say was that it was only open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. At this point Rachele confessed to being tired so she and Generoso went back to their hotel while Vanessa and I headed down to the port. We found a bar right on the beach with tables in the sun and settled in to drinking beer and people watching. You can get anything at the beach in Barcelona. Along with people wandering around selling water and hats and such like, there was also an Asian couple (Thai I think) selling massages. However, our favorite were the men selling mojitos. They had all the non-alcoholic parts pre-mixed and carried a bottle of rum. You selected your flavour and quantity of rum and they made it on the spot for you. Highly illegal but no-one seemed to mind. Vanessa and I just stuck to beer from the bar.
We also snacked on hummus, guacamole with corn chips and a salad of cherry tomatoes, feta, pickled onions and olives. Finally Vanessa tottered off to work while I tottered off to bed.
Tomorrow is the last day of my holiday. Sigh.
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