They say to watch the cabs, I don’t think I was watching close enough. The ride to the Laundromat was $7.80 and the ride back was $4.70. There is a $2.20 fixed fee when you get in, so that means travel was $5.60 on the way over and $2.50 on the way back. I think I paid for an extra tour of Madrid that I did not want. I don’t think the difference had anything to do with the laundry being dirty on the way over.
The woman at the Laundromat was very helpful. She understood no English, and if you haven’t figured it out by now, I understand little to no Spanish. I do know how to say thank you, check please , and where are the bathrooms?! We used our hands a lot and got my laundry done without incident!
Kathyrn was back at the hotel at 1:00 and we packed enough for the weekend in one small suitcase and left the others at the hotel as we will return there on Monday.
We took a cab to the train station. Our train is very modern looking and very comfortable inside. More room that an airplane seat! I am sitting on the train trying to get caught up on this blog.
I remember our train rides in 2003, and all of the olive groves along the routes. I have never seen this part of Spain, so it will be interesting to see what the countryside is like!
As we travel in this high speed train, I was trying to guess the speed. I told Kathryn that I thought we were going at least 100 mph. I then noticed that the speed was indicated on panel near the front of our car, and we actually hit speeds of 300 kph, which if my math is correct, is 180 mph. Zoom…Zoom!
The countryside going towards Barcelona is pretty barren. I would see an occasional small town, nestled in the hills, but not much vegetation and very few animals. The soil is reddish brown and lots of rocks.
As we got closer to Barcelona, the hills became more green, probably the influence of the sea.
We arrived at the train station and took a cab to our hotel. The Grand Marina, right on the harbor. It is a beautiful hotel, the room very nice, and the bathroom spectacular! There is a shower with six shower heads, a separate whirlpool tub, and a bidet.
I took a short nap, Kathryn worked on setting up this blog and then we were off exploring. We walked along the waterfront. We could see several cruise ships and harbors filled with large sail and yachts.
We walked past many shopping areas and finally found the beach. It was getting dark, but there were still hundreds of people on the beach. We found a great outdoor café and had the best paella on the trip. The waiters were really friendly and they kept giving us stuff. The liquor that they gave us with some little cakes for dessert burned all the way down. It was yellow, had a licorice taste, and I could only manage two small sips.
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