Hola, Barcelona!

Since I am posting from Barcelona, that means we managed to get our luggage down the treacherous stairs and survive.  John woke up with a brilliantly simple idea that let gravity (in a good way) do all the work.

Madrid Atocha train station has THE BEST turtle pond.  I do not say that lightly as I love the UT turtle pond.

Like small children, turtles need their own sandbox.

We left from Atocha for our trip to Toledo earlier in the week, so we knew what to do.  Not that we needed a dry-run, as navigating the station is easy as pie.

For the 2 hour and 45 minutes trip to Barcelona, we booked Preferente class.  It was fabulous -- lots of leg room, super comfy seats, very quiet.

And, dogs also prefer Preferente class.

"Jersey Boys" was playing on the monitor, but el perro preferred to look out the window.  His human obliged and turned the carrier to an better angle for viewing.  He got off at a stop about 2/3 the way to Barcelona (the only stop).  

He was so excited, just like how Copper was, we are certain he was headed to his ranch for the weekend

Yep - 187 miles per hour!

If we had this between Austin and Dallas, I'd go see Caroline a whole lot more.  A little over an hour by train beats 3 1/2 hours on that Hell known as I-35.

Our apartment is wonderful.  The best feature might be the elevator.  John says he would have revolted if there had not been one.  I think the best feature is the bottle of Cava waiting for us in the refrigerator.

For today, we strolled down La Rambla, along the waterfront, and through the Gothic Quarter.

Catedral de Barcelona
Will tour later this week

As we were walking through the Gothic Quarter, John got a funny feeling we were being followed.  He maneuvered to put himself behind the woman.  She immediately ducked into a store.  We consider ourselves savvy travelers and take precautions, especially against pickpockets in crowded areas. We'll never know if she was, but evidence points in that direction.

We were starting to get a tad cocky about our Spanish skills.  Not that we were carrying on conversations, but were able to order meals and our accent was good enough that people wanted to carry on conversations in return.

And then this happened, bringing me back to reality:

Me: ¿habla Inglés?

<waitress walks away without responding>

She brings me agua sin gas.

Probably just as well to deflate our ego.  We know no Catalan.

Things we learned:

1. Train travel is considerably less stressful than airplane travel
2. Elevators are a great invention
3. Street musicians in Barcelona are better than street musicians in Madrid