Barcelona: Dia Dos

The eel at the fish market. Looks almost as appetizing as the octopus.


Octopus, anyone?


My favorite of the day. Lots of older men sitting on park benches.
Benches are everywhere in Barcelona.


Typical kinds of buildings and street that we saw on our walk today.
Wonderful balconies and shutters and long tall windows. Sunlight surrounds us here.


Parakeets, for godsakes...they sell parakeets all over. Go figure.


Typical scene on the Ramblas - cars on either side of this wide pedestrian path.


At the marina. A Bob Dylan look alike. Such good attitude.


The boats. Guess it would be nice to have a boat ready to sail out into the Mediterranean, no?


Lee at the marina today.

Hola, again. We are quite the travelers. We took one outing yesterday - to the supermercat about a block away. That's it - nothing more. The market is really good - has everything including a full pharmacy with everything you would expect to find at your local Walgreens. It was really all we - and especially Lee - could handle after a night without sleep. So that was our big day in Barcelona. We ate jamon (ham kind of like proscuitto but more "hammy") and Manchego cheese and drank vino tinto (red wine) in the apartment for something resembling dinner, which is wonderfully quiet without a tv. Then we went to bed around 1:00 a.m. (of course we had napped for hours in the afternoon.) We got up around 8:00 a.m. and now I seem oriented to the time zone.

After another trip to the market for water and chocolate, we took a long hike to the beach - well, the marina, not the beach - through the Ramblas. What I most noticed on this walk was how pedestrian friendly this city is. There is a huge walking path (HUGE!) right in the middle of the streets, dividing the traffic. The walking area is as large as the driving areas on some streets. So far, the city is quite clean, and people look a lot like they do in New York to me, but not so intense, more relaxed. Probably because they have 5 weeks paid vacation a year and don't worry about health care. Dark hair, dark - especially black - clothing. The older couples are beautifully dressed in their tailored coats and sunglasses, walking arm in arm.

We await Isabelle's arrival this afternoon. It makes me tired to even think of keeping up with her, but will be so happy to have an interpreter. I am so lost with Spanish. I keep defaulting to Italian or stumbling and saying absolutely nothing. I am mostly saying, "Lo ciento. Non habla espanol." I am sorry. I don't speak Spanish. Stupida Americana.

Here are some photos from today's walk to the marina. As it is the afternoon in Spain, I'm going to nap. Ciao.