July 22 - Barcelona, Spain

croquettes

La Sagrada Familia

Weather – 26

La Sagrada Familia

degrees, sunny, a bit humid

chips, manchego, olives, hot sauce

Steps – 22,774

Jet lag seems to be over. Nothing is on our agenda until this evening, so we get up for a late hotel-included breakfast. The breakfast is nothing too special, but they do have Spanish torta (cold egg, potato, and onion baked omelette) and pan-con-tomate (bread topped with a fresh tomato purée) along with everything else you’d expect.

cava!!!

After breakfast we wander over to La Sagrada

Familia which is about a kilometer from our hotel. The first time Chris and I were in Barcelona (2012 or 13, I think) we visited the inside of this church, so we just admire the outside this time. This place is busy, not thronging, but plenty of people. We find a bench for a bit of a sit, take a few photos, and move along.

Hector and Chris

When we return to Barcelona after the cruise, we have a tour of the Estrella brewery which is close to the Sagrada Familia, so we wander over there to take
a look. We can’t go inside, but now we know where we have to be.

We find ourselves at one of Barcelona’s

church

pedestrian streets for a beer. This tree lined street is small, lined with shops and bars with a smattering of tables from each bar down the middle. There are plenty of locals around which we like to see. I figure I need to find a tour with an abuela (Spanish grandmother.) These older women know how to dress for this weather…always a flowy dress with room for a breeze, I’m not sure about pockets in these dresses, but I can’t have everything.

We have to be on the go again this afternoon around 4, so we head back to the hotel for one more beer (complements of the hotel) and a siesta. While we enjoy

random street with random art

our beer, we chat with the woman who seems to run the hotel in the day – she checked us in, worked breakfast this morning and poured our beer. The hotel has 90 rooms and apparently is nearly full.

The highlight of the day is a “Barcelona at Sunset: Tapas & Wine Tour”. With Hector our guide and 7 other people (all younger than us, all 6 Americans and one Mexican), we visited 2 bars and one restaurant in the Gothic Quarter and Born neighborhoods. Each of the places is small and independent. We start with Cava (Spain’s answer to Champagne), tomato bread, eggplant and goat cheese croquettes, cecina (Spanish dried beef) and Russian salad (potato salad and tuna that has nothing to do with Russia.) There is enough food here for a small meal and this is just our first stop. During each stop, Hector explains what we are eating and the history and stories around the food and drink. I could do with out the Russian salad, but for the croquette and beef I could have stayed all day.

chocolate mousse with olive oil and salt

Our second stop is to an underground cellar-type establishment. We learn about the Andalusian way of sprinkling hot sauce on potato chips – delicious! We also have thinly sliced beef with tuna sauce, olives (delish), Manchego (again…delish) and cod (also delish). With this we drink red vermouth (vermút rojo) and a white wine…both delish…obs! I had never tried Spanish vermouth but had heard of it and was keen to try. Vermút rojo is a white wine with caramel added along with spices, fortified with brandy or other alcohol…, kinda like a cold mulled wine.

The last stop has us at more of a restaurant than the first 2 places. Here we start with a red wine and eat beef cheek, Spanish hummus and a chocolate mouse drizzled with olive oil and flaky salt. We finish with a Spanish late harvest wine.

church

Between the 3 eating and drinking stops, Hector stops to tell us about a church we pop into, or a monument or a neighborhood. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…touring with a guide is the way to go. Of course, this costs a bit more, but the info and experience is something we can never get from a book.

As expected, this tour was fantastic. A small number of people lets us get to know each other a bit over sharing travel stories and advice. Hector guide was great throughout.

After the tour we hunted for places to grab one last drink. All of the places we passed were a bit too thronging and uninspiring, so we thought the craft beer place right beside our hotel would be perfect. Nope…this place was closed by the time we got there, not super late…930, so much for late night Spanish culture.

At this point I was in a bit of a lather, so since we were right next to the hotel we cooled off and set out in search of one more time for a beer. We finally found a place with an open table and were set.

July 21 - Barcelona, Spain

Arc de Triomf

Place Riel

Weather - Warm and humid, but not hot. 25 degrees in the evening. Great temp for sitting with my first sangria in a square.

steps - 15,000

After a quicker than Google maps trip to the Ibis
Styles hotel thanks to our cab driver whose name I didn’t get this time – only one trip from point A to point B this time!! This cab driver meant business…we were weaving in and out of traffic, using the bus/cab lanes to their fullest. I never seem to worry about safety in cabs (of course I wear a seatbelt)…these drivers are pro…right? I’m frequently shocked that we’ve only been in 2 vacation fender benders. 

Gaudi's Casa Mila

SANGRIA!!!

The best thing to hear when checking into a hotel is “your room is ready”…this is what we hear! The Ibis Styles hotel is basic and perfect… including a welcome drink! Travel experts will advise not to take a nap when arriving after a long flight, but these travel experts don’t know my everyday nap routine. I figure it’s the afternoon in Barcelona, so a nap is in order…if I want to get on a normal sleep routine, it’s gotta include a nap. A couple hours later I’m up, have a little time for blogging and we hit the town.

On our plane were 2 guys Chris used to work with! What are the odds?? One was connecting on, and one was spending the night in Barcelona. We met him, his wife and 3 kids for a couple of drinks and dinner. Fun!! More sangria and a pizza later and t
hat is dinner. Brian even picked up dinner and I forgot to thank him. If you’re reading this…Gracias, Brian!!

Casa Mila

July 20 - Calgary to Barcelona, Spain

FINALLY!!

Warm in Calgary when we leave, expect it to be HOT and HUMID in Barcelona…we will
see.

So…haywire?? A bit haywire…yup. Bags were packed, Uber pulled up and we were on our way. Then we found ourselves in a Deerfoot parking lot, but eventually took an alternate route and made it to the airport - good thing we left our house 3 hours ahead. We got out of the Uber to discover one of our 4 bags was MISSING!!!!! Pre-covid we would never have packed more than one checked bag and one suitcase for a cruise, however…now we each pack an essentials bag that we carry on and then each check a suitcase. I realized when packing, that even for a cruise with it’s required ‘dressy’ clothes, that I could still get by with just a carryon bag.

Anyway…back to the mayhem. Girmay (our Uber driver) and I made it BACK to our house and then BACK to the airport with not too much time to spare. Chris and I decided that he would stay at the airport and check 2 of our bags and then I’d be back and just have to go through security – of course we figured out this plan AFTER we’d convinced Girmay to bolt back to our house. So, we then convinced Girmay to pull over on Airport trail for Chris to get ANOTHER taxi/Uber back to the airport to check in the bags. Longest Uber trip I’ve ever been on…90 minutes!

Thankfully, security was a breeze and Chris and I were finally reunited and were on the plane Champagne in hand. Not the way, either of us wanted to start this vacation, but it’s ‘blog-worthy’ story.

July 2022 – pre vacation

They say the longer you anticipate a vacation, the more psychological benefits the vacation affords you. I believe this. Vacation planning, dreaming, fantasizing, and reading are life’s big luxuries distracting us from the day-to-day oppression – a bit too dramatic? Despite believing this, we aren’t big vacation planners. Now that Chris and I aren’t working full time, we seem to lack motivation to book or plan a vacation far in the future. When life wasn’t one big vacation, and our vacation were dictated by our jobs, we seemed to have things planned a bit more. Certainly not more than a year out, but we wouldn’t be planning a summer cruise 6 weeks before.

The just over 2-week journey, planned a mere 6 weeks ago, is the first time since Covid that we’ve been to Europe. We’re spending a couple of days in Barcelona, before getting on a 10 cruise. We always get into a city at least a day prior to a cruise…just in case flights go haywire and when travelling this far, getting over jet lag prior to the cruise. We’ll finish up with 4 days back in Barcelona.

Most of these 18 days will be spent in Spain (including the Canary Islands) with a day in Morocco and 2 in Lisbon. I’m always happy to revisit places we’ve been in before, but this cruise has only one port we have been to before.

Seattle - June 1

Cider tasting

Today’s tour is called “Seattle’s Underground”. Seattle’s

Waterfront 

origin story involves flooding, a fire, and rebuilding. The results of this are steep hills and underground areas and passageways. They can be seen as basements today, but were the ground floors of Seattle’s first buildings before the streets were elevated. Out of the 33 city blocks of Old Seattle’s underground , we tour 3. I thighs there would be a bit more to see, but the appeal of this tour was the guide’s stories. Not all of the areas we visited were connected, so we went down, then, up, down then up a few times.

Fletcher Bay Wines

As today was our last day, one last happy hour

One last seafood meal

was in order. We visited Locust Cider for a tasting flight of 4 ciders, 8 really because we both had 1. All of their ciders are apple based and then flavours are added before they are finished. All were fruit based (peach, watermelon, pineapple) but the oddest one was cucumber…it was quite tasty.

Evening skyline 

In the evening we took the 30 min ferry to

2 stadiums 

Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. About 25,000 people live on the island. One of the draws of Bainbridge Island is their wine tasting rooms. The grapes are grown in eastern Washington, the wine is made one the island, but

Cool building adornment

not at the tasting rooms. We visit 2 tasting rooms, get a seafood dinner and make the 9:00 ferry back.

Seattle - June 2

Our time in Seattle has come to an end. One of our guides described Seattle as a “3 day city” , and that’s mostly accurate. Seattle’s major tourist attractions could easily be seen in 3 days, but I like our more leisurely approach better. Traveling can be exhausting and we can forget to schedule visits to nap-town. I spent plenty of time in nap town during this vacation.

I’m not sure I’d return anytime soon, but I’m glad I came. 

Seattle - May 31

Space Needle

Weather continues to be chilly before noon, then the

No Way Brosé

fog/cloud burns off and it’s warm-ish. The air has a very fall-like chill to it. It’s pretty rare, that home is warmer than where we are when we’re on vacation. 

Once we were sufficiently full from a room service breakfast and we felt the skys would clear soon, we headed to the Space Needle area, about 2K from our

Chihuly

hotel. We really aren’t observation deck people so we didn’t go up, but wanted to see it and get a souvenir Space Needle for our Christmas tree.

The Chihuly Glass Garden is right next to the Space Needle. This is a smallish museum and garden filled with huge glass sculptures. Very cool. I hadn’t heard of artist

Chihuly

Dale Chihuly, but I think we’ve seen his work in Las Vegas. We sat for a bit of a glass blowing demo. We sat at the gallery’s bar for a refreshment before continuing on to the Olympic Sculpture Park.

The Olympic Sculpture Park is a stretch of park

 Chihuly

along the water with…sculptures. Nice place for a wander.

Next was a bit of shopping. I considered a couple of sweatshirts to combat the morning chill, but just when I think I need a warm layer the sun appears-also I didn’t love anything I tried on. Chris bought a shirt and a hat. 

Chihuly ceiling 

Then somehow it was happy hour. We had a glass of wine, calamari and chowder. This whole Seattle happy hour thing is fine. but not as great at our guide made it out to be earlier in the week. Food is usually a significant discount, but drinks are usually a dollar off…fine, but not amazing. 

After some chill time at the hotel, we visited the Starbucks’ Reserve. This is a big Starbucks, that also

Chihuly boat 

serves alcohol. I tried an olive oil, oat milk latte. I had heard about Starbucks doing olive oil with coffee and wanted to try. It was very good, I’d have again. It was very creamy, and slightly sweet. We paid $22 USD for 2 coffees…not cheap, but nothing here is.

Outdoor glass + Space Needle

The Starbucks was in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood which is an actual neighborhood filled with actual people who actually live here, beyond tourists. This is only the second time since we’ve been in Seattle that we feel were weren’t in tourist-ville, the first was today to and from the Space

Sculpture park and Space Needle

Needle.

We find Capitol Hill Cider and try a flight of 3, 3oz ciders, my 3 are called “No Way Brosé” which I could not resist. I am a cider lover and I’ve never seen a longer cider menu in my life…

Chowder +squid

20 on tap and another 10 in bottles. 

Lastly, was some food and once last cider at what I guess

Olive oil latte

is our local. I try the basil lemon cider which I would not have again.

 

Seattle - May 30

Weather - definitely cool in the morning,

Cheese making!

makes me question my packing choices, the weather forecast said highs of 19-22 degrees, so I didn’t think I’d wish for my toque and gloves! When we set out yesterday around 10 it was downright chilly. All days seem to be foggy and overcast until about 1PM, when the sun appears, the socked-in-ness disappears, and it warms up significantly, still cooler than I anticipated. Today’s high was 19. 

Fish market 

For me, a vacation requires at least one lazy

Fish prices

morning every few days and this morning was lazy-ish. I spent about 20 min in the gym. I planned on being there for an hour or so, but the gym here is tiny and the 3 people already in the weights area made it crowded. I used a treadmill for a while hoping things would empty, but nope…I abandoned. 

Chef/guide

A late morning breakfast, followed by some reading before heading out for today’s Taste of Seattle tour. A group of 12 of us plus a chef/guide wandered around Pike’s Place Market for a couple of hours stopping 9 times to taste and hear stories. We sampled cheese and Mac and cheese, Filipino spring roll, rock fish, clam chowder, candied salmon, pizza ($38 for a smallish whole pie!), chocolates, truffle pesto, and tacos. Each was small, but at the end of the tour we felt relatively full. We also bought a frozen sangria which we were welcome to walk around with. According to our guide, we have Covid to thank for being

able to buy booze to go.

We also saw Seattle’s famous fish throwing fish market. The price for Chinook salmon was $35/lb! Chris brought back a ton of this when he went fishing a couple of years back!

So happy!!

The tour ended just in time for a happy hour refreshment and then back to the hotel for a nap.

Dinner was back across the street at Purple for their Tuesday night special…”pasta and wine for 2” this plus a salad and dessert was $75…not terrible.

Seattle - May 29

 

Pike Place Market

Today started with the Fairmont Olympic hotel’s included breakfast. We had $72/day for breakfast, which sounds ample, but…it was enough, including tax and tip, it just covered it. I had their Olympic breakfast (eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast) Chris had Eggs Benedict. Often hotel’s included breakfast is a buffet, which is much more practical, offering a wider selection, but this al a carte experience was relaxed, civilized and pleasant. 

Hammering Man

We booked “Seattle 101” as our first real activity, a 2 hour, “pay what you feel” walking tour to orient us to Seattle’s downtown. We saw and learned about Seattle’s historic centre, the waterfront and general downtown. There were many opportunities for photos of the skyline, landmarks and mountains. This tour also gave info about happy hours, restaurants and other Seattle activities. The guide was among the best of the million guides we’ve had in the past…the perfect balance of stories, pace, history and recommendations. This was a great way to start out time in Seattle. 

Next was a bit of shopping and back to the room for some down time before this evening’s Seattle Mariners baseball game. 

Smith Tower

According to Jake, “Seattle 101’s” guide, Seattle has a big Happy Hour culture…not terrible news for us. However, the terrible news for Seattle as he went on to explain is because post-pandemic downtown Seattle is 30% emptier and the restaurants and bars that remain are struggling to survive…hence the Happy Hour. None of this is a surprise and not exactly unique to Seattle. Long story short…we benefit. Today’s Happy Hour is at Salty’s on the water. We have 2 cocktails and bruschetta, not clams. We WANTED the clams, but they were out. We figured we could reach down into the water and touch some clams, but nope…bruschetta was going to have to do-it did, very tasty!

T-Mobile Stadium is about 2K from Salty’s. Of course we had to stop for a pre-game pint where we weren’t IDed, but were assessed as old enough. 

cool wall

The game was good, didn’t buy any Mariners gear, had a $12 Rainer beer, some chicken strips and that was that. We tried for one last stop on the way back to the hotel, but no luck-maybe Jake knew what he was talking about. We settled on a 500ml box of 7-11 wine and room service. 

That 7-11 was an interesting place. As Jake mentioned, downtown empties after work as no one lives here and

Happy Hour

there really is nothing drawing people. Today also happens to be Memorial Day so, we’ll see if anything changes for the rest of the week. We have noticed a significant homeless population all day in fact, but especially at night. I’m no stranger to homeless folks, people sleeping in doorways and other realities of downtowns, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone pull down their pants and get down to business right in front of me. I occasionally see the results of this business and when you gotta go, you gotta go, but this was something-definitely reminded me to be thankful I have somewhere to go. 

Yup

A room service club sandwich and glass of 7-11 wine hit the spot. Oh, and checking in on the election too. 

Calgary to Seattle - May 28

Despite being “retired” Chris and I seem to have a schedule that requires scheduling in vacation time. A couple of months back we looked at April, May, and June and saw that this week was the least booked. When it comes to vacations we are procrastinators! When we worked full time and were stuck with specific vacation dates we had things booked months in. Now with our schedules wide open, we somehow have less booked. Last weekend we figured if we didn’t book this it would be too late, so a couple of clicks later we were booked.

Is that a volcano in the background?

I don’t know if the airport was dead because it was a Sunday evening, but from the time we stepped foot in the airport, went through security, talked to the US customs, and were sitting with a drink in our hands 9 min passed. I have to say this is actually pretty typical for us when we leave from YYC. 

Although the flight is only 95 min, we jumped at the upgrade to premium economy…why not, at $65 we figured it was worth it. Being committed to carry on only, we didn’t benefit from the checked baggage, but had space the bigger seat provided, a couple of drinks, and some snacks.

A bit of research concluded that it would be easy to get to our downtown hotel on Seattle’s LRT. The original plan was for an Uber, but $60 vs $6, plus only small luggage and it was settled…public transit it would be! I always like taking public transit when away from home…it gives me a sense of accomplishment and a glimpse of local life. Of course public transportation takes longer 45 min rather than the 20 min Uber ride. One thing I didn’t expect was how hilly Seattle is…good thing we only had small suit cases to lug up a pretty steep hill to the hotel.

Never being to Seattle myself, there’s already a couple of things to like…1-it’s close, a 90 min flight, 2-we gain an hour. 

After the world’s quickest hotel check in, we unpacked (also quick due to carry on only) and headed across the street to Purple, a cool wine bar right across the street from the hotel for a bottle of wine and some shrimp. 

Next we wandered a bit to find our meeting point for tomorrow’s tour, found one last spot for late night happy hour and that was that.