Our time in Barcelona was rather short and sweet. Mietsie and I flew out on a Virgin flight early last Thursday morning from Brussels, and had to fly out on Sunday morning. I didn’t get much sleep the night before on account of staying out late with Raf, Mietsie, Miet and Cil. It was a strange “reunion” of sorts for the Belgians and me, whose common bond was that they had all did time onboard Andiamo.
So the morning we arrived in Barcelona, I was quite exhausted and needed to get some serious sleep. So upon checking into the hotel, I did just that.
After a few good hours of coma time, we managed to get out of the hotel and venture out into town. Lucky for us, our original hotel that we booked had some problems with their AC, so they moved us to a more centrally-located (and higher star) hotel about two blocks off “La Rambla”, which is essentially the main strip of Barcelona. We spent the afternoon essentially walking around, and getting a feel for the city. For me, it had been more than 20 years since I was last here with the Navy. Mietsie had been here just a few years ago, so she was more in tune with where everything was.
Barcelona went through lots of changes as a result of their hosting the Olympics in ’92. The beachfront area was COMPLETELY different from what I last saw. Back then, it was a somewhat urban and dirty beach area. The beach itself wasn’t bad, but everything around it was not too pretty.
The beachside now is a lively district with a boardwalk promenade that goes along the entire strand of “La Barceloneta”. At one end, there is the harbor, main marina, which is home to alot of boats, including many mega-yachts. On the other end, is the new marina that was built specifically for the Olympics sailing events. That marina is now home to several hundred sailboats and private yachts. The former “Olympic Village” comprises of two hi-rise towers that now consist of offices, condos and apartments. All around there are shops, restaurants and lots of nightspots.
I was really impressed at the changes, I remembered Barcelona pretty well from my multiple visits with the Saratoga back in my navy days. The “La Rambla” area and the center of the city remained pretty much the same as I remember it. The only negative to me that stood out this time that existed then was the dirtiness and dankness of the old part of the city.
For the most part, I found myself wanting to be around the boats and the water. On both afternoons of the full days we had in Barcelona, we were on the beach. It was much too hot to walk around and be “tourists” per se’. Since we’d both been there already, it’s not like we had to walk through the whole town. So instead, we just hung out by the shore. Besides, my “yachtie” tan has greatly diminished since me leaving Guatemala, and we can’t have that! I found myself really wishing I can sail a boat while I was there. The breezes were awesome on those days, and there were several boats heading in and out. I even checked into renting a boat for a half day or so, but it didn’t pan out unfortunately, as most places I talked required advance reservations.
The nights in Barcelona were quite lively. There were many cafes and pubs to hang out at, and we tried to hang out at least a few of the good ones. Off La Rambla, there are lots of small winding streets that are home to many very different and very colorful watering holes, and eating establishments.
Then the 2nd night we were there, I found a CASINO with a poker room right off the beach! And boy, was I in the mood for some good Texas Hold ‘Em. So for a couple of hours, I played and actually won some Euros! We went to the Baja Beach Club just outside the casino by the beach to celebrate my victory.
By the time 3AM rolled around, we decided it was time to head back. But trying to get a cab proved to be quite the task. Then, when we finally did get a free cab, this freaked out British chick and these two other dweebs that were with her, waylaid the cab literally from underneath us. It was unbelievable, I had never seen anything so blatant in my life. If I were still in LA mode, there would have been some trouble I suspect, but I just shrugged it off after a few minutes of utter shock and disbelief at how low some people can go. We did manage to get a cab not too long after that whole thing.
Our last evening there, I went back to the casino to play a little more poker, and in doing so gave back some of my previous nights’ winnings, but hey, that’s how it goes. I still managed to stay in the black. We had a late night pizza, and had a couple of drinks at a pub.
We had to fly out Sunday morning at 10 AM, so that meant that we had to be at the airport at something like 8 AM. So needless to say we had to keep things a bit subdued on Saturday night.
We made it back to Hasselt with no problems. After a little rest, I’ll be making my way through Germany, Czech Republic and perhaps a little bit of Scandinavia before having to make my way to Croatia by mid-August. I have to be in Croatia by then because I’ll be volunteering in a dolphin research project that I signed up for. It all sounds quite fascinating, and it will give me something “non-touristy” to do. So I’m looking forward to that.
So the trek continues, and man is time going by fast! 
Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]
Hi captain,
I really enjoyed travelling with you yachtie, Paris and Barcelona were fantastic short trips, maybe we can do it again! ‘What do ya think?’ 😉
mietsie