Some HDR Pictures (via Photomatix and Adobe Photoshop)

Barcelona Street View

Barcelona Hotel Window View

Pictures are here

12 March 2009, Thursday night, we flew from Kansas city to Philadelphia, had a one and a half hour lay over, and then flew to Madrid, arriving about 10 am on Friday morning.
We stayed at the Westin Palace Hotel, and were able to check in and go to our rooms immediately (Amazing at 10 AM!). The hotel was beautiful, and had a great location. We took a 2-3 hour nap, and then walked around for a few hours, and had tapas at an outdoor cafe. We sat next to some teen stars for a TV show Colby knows of. That night, the concierge made reservations at El Barril (Recoletos 9, Madrid), and we had seafood: a great meal. Colby left her jacket, and we walked all the way back to get it, only to find they had kindly messengered it back to the hotel concierge. The next day, we had a buffet breakfast (included), and walked to a shopping area around the Puerto del Sol. This is the place that the huge New Years celebration apparently takes place. There is a huge store (books, electronics) called FNAC, which had an apple store and a big bookstore as well. We then walked to the Prado Museum, and then came back to the hotel. At 9 pm, we went to a restaurant called La Barraca (Reina 29, Madrid), which specialized in pealla. It was great.

Since we had a huge buffet breakfast/brunch (free) every day, we would have a tiny snack in the late afternoon, Then each night, it usually took about 2 hrs to eat, with appetizers, main course, dessert, and espresso. Bill was usually about 200€, (5 people) and tips traditionally were about 5-6%. The concierge made all the dinner reservations, and every restaurant was very very good.

On Sunday, we had buffet breakfast, and walked to the Royal Palace, and toured it and the armory. They were awesome. We also went to the Plaza Mayor, and to the monastery of the barefoot Royals (Desclazas Reales). We briefly went back to the hotel, and then to the Thyssen museum before it closed at 7 pm on Sunday. We went to an Italian restaurant for supper at 9 pm called La Creazione (Ventura de la Vega, 9, Madrid). Homemade noodles- delicious.

On Monday morning, we ate breakfast at the Palace Hotel, and took a cab to the Atocha train station (new wing – very Botanical), just across from the Prado. We could have walked there, but with luggage, it is better to take a cab. We are taking the AVE (“bullet”) train to Barcelona. The trip takes about 3. 5 hours (couple of stops). We are staying at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona.

The AVE train trip was a fiasco, since the concierge at the Westin Palace Hotel booked the train tickets in advance for us back in November. Unfortunately, when we tried to get on the train, we found the tickets were for February instead of March. Oops. I rushed down to the ticketing area to buy 5 new round trip tickets, but my pathetic credit card company (whom I had let know we would be vacationing in Spain during those days) decided my train ticket purchase might be credit card fraud, and blocked the card. We missed the train. With another card, I bought new tickets (over $1000). We can only hope the hotel will cover it, since it is their fault.

The Hotel Arts was awesome – you are greeted at the entrance by name, offered ice water, and ushered into the lobby by your personal assistant. Our rooms overlooked the ocean, and were very chic and beautiful. In March, it was too cold to swim in the ocean, but some (few) people laid out on the beach. There was a fairly cold ocean breeze. About May is when the water is warm enough to swim in.

Anyway. Barcelona was very hip and chic, the hotel is very trendy. Went for dinner to La Botafumiero (Gran de Gracia 81, Barcelona), a fabulous seafood restaurant. The next night we went to Alba Gonzales (Enric Granados 34, Barcelona), where were had ox cooked at our table on hot stones, which the waiter would change when they cooled off. This was one of the all-time great meals. Big family discussion over the difference between cows, bulls, oxen, steers, etc. Ryan and Colby had duck, which was also fantastic. The next day, we took a taxi to La Pedrera, a curvy apartment complex, and walked south a short distance to Cuidad Condal (Rambla Cataluna 18, Barcelona), where we had a fantastic selection of tapas (You pick out small serving of a huge number of things – tuna salad on bread, mini ham and cheese sandwiches, etc, etc – and share them. After eating way too much, we walked further south to La Rambla, an open walking area famous for people watching (and pickpockets). We had smoothies at the big open market. Saw the old umbrella factory, Barcelona cathedral, opera house. Lots of cool high-end stores (and Anthropologie) down curvy alleyways and side streets.

The last day, we walked to one of the cable car towers on the beach (closed for repairs, so we took a cab to the next one), and took the cable car to the top of the Jewish mountain, and saw the castle. We walked down the hill to the Juan Miro Museum (he was one weird hombre – one painting entitled “Man and woman in front of pile of excrement”), and then to the Spanish plaza, and took two cabs to the La Sagrada Famalia (Sacred Family), an unbelievable cathedral begun in the late 1880′s, and scheduled for tenyative completion by 2030. It was designed by Antonio Gaudi, and it was simply incredible. One of the wonders of the world. We walked back to the hotel, and had dinner at 9 pm at Las Neyras (Via Layentana 41, Barcelona), where we had la lubina con sal (sea bass cooked in an oven and sandwiched in salt), and a rice dish with lobster (essentially a paella).

We got up early the next day, Thursday, and uneventfully took the bullet train (AVE) back to Madrid, and checked back into the Westin Palace, and where I immediately discussed with the manager my concerns about about being sold one thousand dollars worth of expired train tickets by his concierge. He will let me know tomorrow what the outcome is.

Dinner tonight, Thursday, was at Rincon de Esteban (Santa Catalina, 3, Madrid). Many places are closed for Spanish Father’s day, which is today. Good traditional Spanish cuisine, friendly staff, lots of freebie appetizers, with a very good price. Some shots of lemon-favored liqueur after desert. Just like all meals in Spain, we started at 9 pm and finished dinner at 11 pm. Appetizers are ordered (about 3 for 5 people), and only olive oil is provided for the bread (no butter unless you ask). I believe Spain produces more olive oil than any other country. Drinks were usually red wine (Riojas) and sometimes a jar of Sangria. Even children are offered wine – there appears to be no concept of a drinking age. (Actually, I believe it is 16 yrs)
Hotel agreed to comp me for the train tickets, and they will credit my bank.

We went to the Retiro park on Friday, and it was beautiful. There is a Crystal Palace, and a lake you can rent a boat and row accross. The lake is very small, and was very crowded with boaters. We went to the nice shopping area on Goya and Serrano avenues, near the Columbus towers. There are a lot of expensive shops, and I got a nice shirt (no plancho!): Colby did not like the pattern- said I looked like walking piece of graph paper. She got a huge purse, and then piped down.

We had a traditional Catalan dinner at La Ancha (Zorrilla 7, Madrid). Chase had an leg of lamb, and out tasted good. Colby had hake, and Ryan and mom had swordfish. I had breaded veal, also good. We got up at 7 am to have another huge free buffet breakfast, and left for the airport at 9 am. There was no traffic, so we got to the airport in about 15 minutes. The flight back to Philadelphia was on time and smooth as glass. We had a 3. 5 hour layover before our flight to Chicago – by some idiotic airline rule (aren’t they all -> seat backs upright, pay for luggage, huge carry-ons encouraged by the stupid rules, completely useless security), we had to check our luggage all the way through to KC, so we all had 0 suitcases overnight in Chicago, where we stayed in an airport Sheraton (smelled bad, awful). We got up at 6 to go to Kansas city in the on an 8:30 am flight, and were home by 10:30 am on Sunday March 22, just in time to watch KU advance in the NCAA tournament.