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Europe 2007 – Day Thirty-Seven

September 13th, 2007 - 10:07pm

Day Thirty-Seven
Barcelona
13 September 2007 22:07

Last night’s sleep was punctuated by an unwelcome visitor.  A mouse had crept into our room — probably through an open window, even though we’re on the second floor — and was exploring quite loudly.  I tried to “shoo” the mouse and thought I’d succeeded.  Just as we drifted off to sleep our friend leapt into action.  The second time seemed to scare him off.

When we told the owner in the morning, he seemed quite annoyed; at us or the mouse wasn’t clear.  He went up to the room with us and did a sweep the bomb squad would be proud of and we agreed it must be gone.

Our first destination today was the Museo di Xocolata (Chocolate Museum).  Inside was a history of chocolate from the Aztecs as well as some amazing chocolate sculptures.  As we left we went to buy some bonbons and Justine couldn’t tell what one was.  It was a salty hazelnut praline.  As she wasn’t sure they gave us a free sample (they’re about $2.50 each) and it was actually really good.  We bought a few and headed off.

Lunch was at an “Udon” restaurant, basically a ripoff of “Wagamama” which we like back home.  I had chicken udon noodles and soup.

As we headed to the metro station, we stopped of at a “Xocoa” shop (we’d bought some stuff from one yesterday elsewhere) and got another small bar of chocolate — white with raspberry — and a brownie.

I’d guessed the wrong metro station by using our map so we roamed the back streets of a suburb which seemed at least partly safe, with a partial knowledge of where we should be on the map.  Give or take a few blocks.

After a lot of criss-crossing we arrived at the base of a hill where we caught a bus up to catch a funicular to Tibidabo, which is an amusement park of sorts.  The park itself was closed but we could wander next to it and the view was great.  Rides were working, but only a few, but we weren’t interested.  We’d gone up at 5:30pm and the last funicular down was at 6:15pm.  We caught it back down.

Back at the docks we went to the shopping centre we’d visited yesterday as Justine wanted something but had been up able to get it yesterday.

The place was again closed (“back in 5″) so we went outside and grabbed dinner at a tapas bar on the docks.  The food was really good and as our 5th, 6th and 7th plates came Justine popped into the shop and got her stuff.

We couldn’t finish all the food so with full stomachs headed back up Las Ramblas and to bed.

Tags: barcelona, europe 2007, funicular, las ramblas, spain, tapas, tibidabo