I was struggling today and it was not a good day to be jet-lagged.. Today was full of muchas activities.We left for our wine tasting at the crack of 9am. Mind you I stayed up until 1am trying to Skype with Chrissy and Mom and Dad.
James and I (and about 50 other bank employees) took a tour bus to the Parés Baltá Winery. The winery is located about 45 minutes away from Barcelona and has been family owned since 1790. Our guide was 12th generation owner/operator. We were lucky because our group was the only tour he lead for the week. We got to walk the vineyards, touch the grapes, see the wine cellar and go down to the Cava caves, which were 12 meters under the winery. The tour ended with the tasting of the wines and cava (champaign). We also got to taste the olive oil produced by the company. It was Mu Bueño!! We bought two bottles of red wine and two bottles of olive oil and an extra suitcase. Yep, they sold them there, entrepreneurial genius!
After the wine tasting, we got back on the tour bus and rode 45 minutes to Sitges, which is a very upscale fishing village located right on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. We had some free time so James and I walked along the beaches and I prayed to the good Lord above that we would not see any nudity, especially if the people were male and over the age of 80. But alas, no such luck.
We met back as a group to get back on the bus for a ten minute drive to lunch. Well...a lady lost her husband and we had to wait 20 minutes until they found him. Yeah...I didn't ask. We finally made it to lunch around 2 and it lasted until 4! It was about five courses and was very different. We had fried fish that still had the heads on them. No thanks! We also had fried Cod balls, wine, paella, some sort of shell fish that sort of resembled oysters, wine and more wine. I just asked James what he thought the shell fish was and he said, 'I don't know, but they tasted like butt." Well said Barney, well said.
We got back to Barcelona around 4:30 and decided to tour the city with a couple from Mobile. We took a taxi to La Familia cathedral in "old town" Barcelona. James got in the front seat and told the driver where we wanted to go. And then...AND THEN, in his most fluent Spanish he said, "it's abouta three miles upa the streeta." Um...yes sir God Father. I have giggled about this all afternoon. Apparently all you have to do to get around Spain is talk in a really bad Italian accent.
Here are a few pictures:
After we took pictures of the cathedral that's been under construction for the last 150 years (can you imagine the capital campaign for that?), I did a little clothes shopping and James did a little cheese, pastry, ham, and bread shopping. We came back to the hotel and decided to just eat his purchases for dinner out on the beach. The Filler's (the couple from Mobile) brought a bottle of wine and joined us. We had a great time. After the vast amount of cheese and ham we consumed, we decided on ice cream for dessert with a Lipitor chaser, as I'm sure dinner boosted our cholesterol well into the 300's. Good times!
About 9:45 we decided to head back to the room because the beach turns into a singles bar gone wrong, plus James and Mark forgot their tans and tank tops. Dang!
Well friends, it's the end of the day and I'm feeling fairly incoherent from a level of exhaustion that I didn't think existed outside of being forced to watch a marathon of Man Versus Wild. But the day was totally worth it!
I swear I'll talk about the bidet tomorrow. It's a gem of a story.
Love,
The Barnetta's (to be said in your best Italian accent)
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