Our trip to Barcelona

Yesterday we left Logroño and our weird but well accommodated hotel and got on the bus for the trip to Barcelona. As we drove we traveled through several different and distinct regions. La Rioja, as I probably mentioned before, is a famous wine producing region (mainly reds) and looked like Napa at times. The soil also looked chalky. We dipped through a part of Navarra and spent most of our drive in the desserts of Aragon, which I thought looked somewhat like Nevada--sage brush, the occasional tree, rocky dirt, etc. Throughout the trip I read my book, played the dot game (where you make squares by adding lines) with Raquel, a student, and laughed about inside jokes made during the trip. 

Once inside Catalonia, we stopped at Lleida at a buffet type restaurant for lunch. It felt a lot like Ikea where you put what you want on your tray and then they add it up. I had breaded pork cutlet, and some peas, carrots, and Lima beans all cooked together, with a lemonade type drink. It tasted great and I especially enjoyed the cooked vegetables as I have all too often gotten chicken and potatoes. The cool thing about the rest stop restaurant and gift shop was that it was constructed over the Autovia or high way. As I sat eating lunch, I could look at the windows at the two lanes of road. 

From there we had a hour drive or so to Barcelona where things considerably got greener and we started to see wine grapes again, only this time, our tour guide told us they were Cava grapes--basically, champagne grapes but since they do not come from the champagne region in France they call them Cava, much like we call ours sparkling wine in CA. 

Our hotel is really nice, situated in the Montjuic area and has lots of amenities. I have a kitchenette, a patio and two chairs, a TV and even a towel warmer. . .oooooo! And so much more! In the evening we checked out the Plaça d'Espanya and the Magical Montjuic fountain which changes all kinds of colors. It was really quite beautiful but also a tourist trap and a pickpockets paradise. 

   Plaça d'Espanya