Saturday Sept. 6th Barcelona

So, I finally woke up about 5 hours later, took a shower and got dressed. Tim and I decided to go exploring. Before we left, we asked the hotel clerk to recommend a good place to get paella. He called a restaurant and got us a reservation for 8pm. Tim and I thanked him and headed out. We went through small passageways and alleys, all very picturesque. The buildings had gorgeous features and we found an opera house with some incredible tiling on it. We walked down an alley and came out onto a plaza with tons of people doing a dance. There was a band playing and people dancing in groups. Tim said that in the book there were traditional dances on this plaza sometimes. A lady came around asking for donations for music programs. We gave and got a sticker. There was a band playing...it was really quite something. The cathedral was pretty busy, so we continued down the alley and saw a second cathedral, we went in for a little while and looked around. Tall stained glass windows, high ceilings, and carvings, it was incredible! We continued to the water front...there was a festival going on, lots of people. We saw some gypsies with their wagon, some boats, and so we headed along the waterfront to our restaurant. We passed a soccer stadium with a game going on...then we arrived at Port Olympia, site of the Olympic village. There was a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut. The view of the sea was incredible with the sun setting. We walked out onto the boardwalk. We watched a sailboat go by and the surf for awhile then went to find our restaurant. We arrived...the place wasn't particularly busy. We ordered seafood paella for two and some gazpacho to start. It was sooooo yummy! We were offered flowers to buy and someone came along to take our picture. It was a table outside, the weather was nice, it was very romantic! For dessert I ordered creme Catalan (which is very similar to creme brulee) they also brought us a complementary dessert of cakes with melon liquor and something in a bottle with a homemade label. I guess it was grapa. Tim and I tried both, preferring the melon for sure! Once we were done with dinner, we walked back to the hotel. It was a great first night in Barcelona!