Travel, Day 12

Travel, Day 12

Rome to Milan to Barcelona

April 24

Today has been all about getting from point A to point B and it wasn’t until Barcelona that we started getting tired of it, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We woke up this Easter morning to traditional Easter cake called Colombo, which means dove.  It is a lovely cake that comes around only once a year. Walking to the train station was better this time as we avoided certain unsavory parts of the neighborhood near the station. The ride from Rome to Milan is very smooth going over 300 kilometers an hour and it was a kind of bitter sweet ride as we were leaving the beautiful fields and orchards of central Italy to go to the industrial and commercial northern Italy and finally say goodbye. With Shana just getting the hang of Italian, and me getting finally brushed up on mine, we will miss the romantic eloquence with which Italians communicate. Having enjoyed Pizza (too many to list), Gelato, Focaccia, cheese (again too many to list), Pasta (again too many to list), Bread (again too many to list), and….  Wine: Frizzante, Spumante, Rose’, White, and Red.  Sights and more sights. The list goes on and on. We got to the airport good and early, by now pro at the public transportation scene in Italy. Actually we seemed to be just plain LUCKY with our transport to the airport, as I thought we were to go to the Malpensa airport and ended up at the Linate airport, which turned out to be the right one anyway. The flight was a little hour and a half jump from country to country.  We are totally jealous all these Europeans can do this so easily as we are semi dreading a long flight over the Atlantic and then all the states.

Barcelona transportation is very well organized and clearly marked, which makes it relatively easy to get around if you don’t speak the Spanish.  There were many times in Italy we were glad we could communicate with Italians, but here there seen fewer bus drivers and people in general that speak English in Barcelona, but the great urban planning and slick public transportation reduce the need for that type of communication which was good for us . The Barcelona airport is clean, organized, and has ja sensible flow to it and we found a bus that would go to our hotel super easy. Stoked we were only going to spend three Euro to get there we settled in.  After a couple stops we found ourselves regretting not paying more for a taxi as we weren’t the only ones with luggage and “packed liked sardines” doesn’t even come close to how tight we were in there. 

The B Hotel is ultramodern and fits in well with Barcelona’s focus on architecture and appealing shapes and colors.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 It has a pool on the roof that spills over the edge overlooking the Spanish plaza and the rooftop patio boasts amazing view of the sunset and the city. It is situated next to a large shopping mall that looks like a huge bull fighting arena and more than a few excellent restaurants.

Dinner was at Tapa Gaudi. 

 Shana was intent on ordering the Goat Cheese salad as she had fond memories of goat cheese salads she’d had in Barcelona years ago.  For good reason apparently, as the salad that was delivered had a huge cross section of nice dense goat cheese along with super fresh mixed greens, egg, raisins, and a sweet vinaigrette that was an all perfectly scrumptious combination.

  We ordered a bottle of Rosado Frizzante from the local Catalan area that tasted like fresh tangerines and we also had a plate of cured Iberian hams which had a sampling of five different delicious types and a plate of salty stuffed olives.  Spaniards really love their salty meats, cheeses and tapas and WE really love the salty Spanish meats, cheeses and tapas!  We were happy to have such a refreshing acidic wine with a little bit of citrusy fruit to cut through our rich and salty Spanish Dinner.  YUMMY!  Hello Catalan Cuisine!