Gladys- London´s Calling

Let me know!

Plaza de España, Barcelona

I had two hours to explore the Plaza de Espana. It wasnt enough. You could spend a whole day on this one block. With its many gardens, walking trails, endless stairways and its main inhabitant the palacio real.

Barthelona

Barcelona is composed of tightly woven narrow alleyways. Its quite different from Madrid. Its a little scummier. theres a lot of graffiti. people are a bit more bohemian.


I paid a visit to the museo de xocoa. All things chocolate. one thing i learned was that chocolate arrived to europe through the sea ports of barcelona. the museum is funded by the Ecola de Patisseria.


Baercelona is an up and coming bike friendly city. The presence of bike here are not appreciated by drivers or pedestrians. some streets have designated bike lines. but they can be on the left or right side of the street or some cases right down the center of a side walk. No one has the right of way here. you just have to watch where your going. there are bike stations spread throughout the city. they are only used by locals who can access them by setting up online accounts that withdraw funds from their bank accounts for renting the bikes.



On a walking tour of barcelona through the life of picasso we were taken through an art district.

Mi tia sonia y yo en el museo de picasso















Barcelona, much like Los Angeles in that its pretty flat surrounded by the ocean and mountains. Perched on top of a mountain, is Castell de Montjuic. You can hike, bike or drive up or take the Teleferic, which is a cable car that lifts you up and gifts you a birds eye view of the city.

Mi mama y mi tia






















Antoni Gaudi Casa Batlló The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones






Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera



On the Bike tour through barcelona, many of our stops were for admiring the Modernist architectural beauties of Antoni Gaudi. His story is so fascinating. His masterpiece being the Sagrada Familia id yet to be finish. It is estomated to be finished in 2026, for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi´s death.

la gastronomia madrileño

I thought spain was all about serrano ham. but apparantly its the bologne of madrid. iberico ham is what its all about here. The finest jamón ibérico is called jamón ibérico de bellota. This ham is from free-range pigs that roam oak forests.They eat only acorns during this last period.The ham is cured for 36 months

I didnt eat this fish but I saw it in the Mercado de San Miguel.

Yummy Spanish cheese

Spain demomstrated a sense of global responsibilty in my opinion. The metro and bus system here is fantastic. There are recycle bins on every corner. Most bathrooms have hand dryers instead of towels and lights that are only on when your inside. Yet one thing i found a bit ironic, almost hypocrytical was its approach to food and human contact. all produce is pre packaged. No need to touch fruit. I though this was a waste of packaging and unnecessary use of styrofoam. If there was loose fruit at a market, there is someone there who is hired to bag it up for you. Customers are not allowed to press and thump and sniff for the ripest fruits and vegetables without wearing gloves.

So of all the places weve eaten at in Spain, i never thought one of the best things i´d eat was downstairs from the apt. these `pinxtos`as theyre called are palm sized open faced sandwiches, better known in spain as bocadillos. this one here was roasted squash blossom with brie fundido y iberico ham.

im tired

so i started a new post about and hour and a half ago with pictures from barcelona. but somehow its gone and im tired. so im posting one picture. the highlite for me of barcelona was a bike tour i took of the city.

the itinerary so far is <

Netherlands- amsterdam, rotterdam and haarlem

belgium- brussels and bruges

germany- cologne fussen and munich

Alicante, Spain

Alicante is a beach city about four hour train ride from Madrid. If youve been to Ensenada then youd fit right in in Alicante. We arrived during the festivities of San Juan. The city builds wooden floats that are placed throughout the city.

Neighborhood block parties and parades o girls dresses in traditional gowns take place for a week. The celebration ends at midnight of the seventh day of firecracker filled drunkenness with the burning of the wooden sculptures.

we drank a bottle of champagne on the pier , to pay homage to san juan.

Fotos de Madrid

Palacio Real

The clouds were like a screen saver

Huge piece of cheese

Plaza Mayor

Champigñones y frutas secas

Madrid Barrajas Aeropuerto

Jardin de La Caix

video of argentinos en puerta del sol after mundial victory

for the record i know this post looks wack but i dont have a lot of time to figure out this blog format.

i leave to barcelona in six hours and havent packed.

miss you guys