Before the trip I had learned that pretty much no cab driver in Barcelona speaks English, so the ride to the hotel would be my first test of using Spanish. I can proudly say that it went very well. I not only got us to the hotel, but I even chatted with the driver on the way.
Something that really struck me on the way to the hotel was how little it felt like a foreign country. From everything I have heard and read, I had expected it to feel very different. Now we were staying in one of the newer parts of Barcelona, Diagonal Mar, but still, it really didn't feel all that different. I also noticed during the drive that Barcelona is an absolutely beautiful city, and it's all built with a great focus on the sea.
After about a 20 minute drive we arrived at our hotel, the Hilton Diagonal Mar. It is a beautiful hotel located right by the Mediterranean with a mall across the street. Even though it was 10am they had our room ready, that was some of the best news I have ever heard. Soooooo tired! We were also upgraded to a beautiful corner suite with a view of the Med. It is an awesome room with a living room, a bedroom, and a huge bathroom with a bidet (so happy to have one of these foot washers as Dad calls it lol). We also have access to the executive lounge on the 15th floor with free food and drinks.
After getting in the room I had to call housekeeping to get my sofa bed made and to get a few towels. Mom and Dad went up to get drinks from the lounge but I collapsed into bed after setting an alarm for a three hour nap.
Five hours later I woke up. We all headed up to the lounge for snacks. WOW! The lounge was avsolutely incredible. It is surrounded with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city, the mountains, and the sea.
We stayed for a while enjoying desserts, then snacks. I also got to enjoy the European versions of Coke and Coke Light. Aside from being really small and in heavy glass bottles, I actually like their taste better.
After a while in the lounge we headed to the mall across the street to get some dinner, and ended up eating in a Catalan fast food restaurant called Bocatta. Now why do I mention that it was Catalan, because it turned out that we had chosen a restaurant with it's menus totally in Catalan as opposed to Spanish. For everyone who does not know, Catalan is in a region of Spain known as Catalonia, which has an autonomous government, and where the first language is Catalan. Because of this, I ended up with a bacon and cheese sandwich, oops.
After dinner we strolled around the huge, three story mall and grabbed some Ben and Jerry's for dessert. Back at the hotel we grabbed some tea in the lounge and then collapsed into bed.
Day 3 coming soon.
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