We took a red eye from New York to Barcelona and arrived early in the morning. The hotel we were staying at did not have our room ready so we left our bags there and headed downtown. Neither T nor I are really morning people. As we lethargically walked towards Las Ramblas, we became more and more sleepy. By the time we got down to the bottom of the hill, we were spent. T suggested we sleep on a bench. At first I thought he was kidding, but apparently not. He ended up sleeping for 3 hours on the bench!
After our early siesta, we headed to La Boqueria, the open-air market off of Las Ramblas. The market was pretty colorful…lots of everything! We went to Bar Pinoxta, a tapas place in the market. We had garbanzo beans that were savory and delicious as well as a custard donut that we absolutely loved. In fact, we tried to go back to Bar Pinoxta two other days to see if we could get another one but we did not have any luck. It will live in our donut dreams.
Aside from the great meals, we ran around the Olympic stadium and wandered through the university area as well as the ghetto. It was a nice and relaxing first day!
Other Barcelona highlights:
- Tried to go to Palau de la Musica twice, once it was closed and the second time they only had a Spanish guide. Although we had heard great things about the Palace, we figured it wasn’t meant to be
- Dinner at Bar Mutt – the food was amazing, especially heart attack
in a bowl – our nickname for a dish with chorizo, french fries and eggs - Sagrada la Familia – Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral was pretty awesome! So much care, thought and detail in the design and stained glass windows
- After hanging out in the Parc de la Ciutadella, we enjoyed our afternoon by having drinks outdoors. Right when we sat down there was a guy that ran quickly by us – I thought he was trying to catch the bus but turns out he was running away from cops! The cops parked their car nearby where we were sitting and about 10 minutes later they were back with the culprit. Not your everyday afternoon people watching
Granada was the next city we visited; it was so much bigger than I remembered! 
We only spent a few days here but loved a tapas bar that a friend recommended. They only served tapas when we finished a drink, however since I’m a slow drinker, T took one (or many) for the team so we could eat dinner off of our tapas. At one point the bartender increased the size of refills for beer since the little glass seemed too easy for T.
We spent our day around Albaicín, the Arab settlement, it was so wonderful to walk around the streets. They were built narrow so only pedestrians and bikes are allowed. After getting a stunning view of Alhambra from Mirador de San Nicolas, we headed back down the hill to our hotel. We stopped at a restaurant and sat there in the shade, at a secluded table with a partial view of Alhambra relaxing and enjoying our surroundings.
In the evenin
g we headed up to Alhambra, our tickets for entry were for 7pm. However, the entry time only applied to viewing the palace! When we got there to pick up our tickets the booth operator said that we should have been there hours ago to start our viewing since Alhambra closes at 8pm! Well, I was really upset about this but T was ok with it. We ended up doing the abridged version – the speed walking tour! We ended our evening back at our favorite tapas bar to see our minimal English speaking bartender and called it a night.
The next day we took the train to Seville, it was not a very smooth ride, but it was beautiful passing by the rolling hills with olive trees in perfectly straight rows as far as the eye could see. We didn't do much during the day primarily because I wasn't feeling well. After getting some rest and taking a break from tapas, I was back and ready to do some sight seeing.The only tourist attraction we had a chance to see was the cathedral, it is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. We decided that after seeing that cathedral, there was no point in seeing another at our last destination, Madrid.
For our last two days we stayed in Madrid, which was great. 
We spent most of our time walking around town, running in the park and eating. We did get around to doing one cultural event, watching Flamenco dancers. Our book highly recommended a Chinese restaurant that has two nightly shows so we went there. It was a normal restaurant however in the back there was a stage. There were approximately 5 guitarists/singers and 6 Flamenco dancers. There were 2 older Flamenco mujeres (ladies), 3 younger ladies and one guy. It was fun to watch their social dynamics and their facial expressions, which are supposed to tell as much of the story as their fast moving feet. I've only watched one Flamenco show before but this show was a lot more informal, they gathered around in a circle and each one went up and did their dance. It sort of felt like a break-dancing circle but for Flamenco!
On Sunday we headed back home and actually got upgraded to business class! We had a relaxing, enjoyable flight back home and have fond memories of vino, some amazing sites and experiences.
