Seis días en catalán

Translate: Six days in Catalan (home to ¡Barcelona!)

We went to Barcelona for six days in late April/early May... A recap.

Thursday
Arrived in warm Barcelona! We took the bus to "Hotel California" - yes, that was the name, but no worries, unlike the song, we got to leave. We quickly freshened up and headed off to the Spanish Trails tour shop to start our vineyard tour. Charles, the owner was very gracious and nice. He informed us that because of the remodeling and transition their business was going through, that we were the only two signed up for the event and would essentially be getting a private tour. Yeah for us. Trevor, our guide was a very liberal and laid back man from San Diego. He'd been living in Europe for 2 years so he gave us a very nice background history our our way to San Pao, where the grape fields and Felix's (owner) shop was at.

We were escorted through the the little shop, where only four people work - Felix and his wife Christina and two employees - and shown where actual fermentation takes place, how the removal of 'la madre' (The Mother) occurs and the corking happens. Afterwards, Christina brought us downstairs where there were hundreds of bottles, all being aged to different years for different reasons, whites, rosés, reds and cava (champagne).

We got to the last chamber of the basement and a full table of authentic Catalonian food awaited us - breads, cheeses, and a variety of fresh and dried meats. The most unusual that I can remember was the fresh bread that had a butter and fresh tomatoe 'rub' on it. It was sort of like brushetta, but different.

The 'tasting' became drinking after about 20 minutes, and after we finished, Tim and I each got to go through the process of removing la madre (the sediment that accumulates in cava and is slowly pushed to the tip by rotating angled bottles once a day for 15 days) and cork our own bottle to keep! Very fun.

Friday
We made our way have a coffee at our favorite coffee shop in Barcelona. Unfortunately, they had no outside seating at the time, so we went to our second favorite. A couple coffees and our magazines and books and we were ready to start the day. Naturally, after grabbing some lunch, we headed to the beach with a six pack of San Miguel. I LOVE drinking on the beach.

Saturday
After our morning coffee, we made our way to the Metro so we could get to the train station. Upon arriving there, we purchased two tickets to Sitges and what I thought I heard to be 'seises' (6) in Spanish was Cin (5) in Catalonia... Cinco is 5 in Spanish... so, since I heard 6, we got on the wrong train and ended up in Barceloneta. So, after trial number 2 and an hour later than we hoped, we arrive in the resort town of Sitges. We found our hotel and made our way to the beach. Our first cocktail was at a place called Restaurant Kansas - Just making our way through the American states in Spain aren't we?

After freshing up, enjoying a long walk on the beach, we say on the rocky barriers (that protect the beach from waves) and drank San Miguel and talked about our families, and life and when and where we might get married. Very romantic and enjoyable night. We ran into 5 of our students, oddly enough, on our way to dinner. One of them had mentioned that Sitges seemed to be a 'highly gay area' and we concurred (duh! one of the reasons we went! ;-) and laughed about that. It became sort of a running joke for a few weeks...

Pizza for dinner, a wee siesta, and then to some of the bars. The first three bars had an over abundance of 'bear' gay men in them which we found strange (like wtf, is EVERYONE here a bear?). At the last bar of the evening, our French bartender Joel informed us that it was the annual 'Bear Weekend' and they had come from all over Europe... which makes the 'highly gay area' comment so much more relevant and funny now.

The highlight of the night was hearing a song we hadn't heard before called D-I-S-C-O... one that takes DAYS to leave your head after hearing it.
D - delightful, I - incredible, S - super special, C - sweet as candy, O - oooOOhh, It's a Disco... and so on. Great tune, not gonna lie.

Sunday
After a nice lay in, we window shopped, had coffee and then walked around the city.

Repeat the Saturday afternoon of laying out, barrier with Cava this time, dinner again, nap, and then to see Joel.. our new favorite bartender. Very nice gentleman, and generous... ugh.

Monday

As they'd say in español: repetición. Another GLORIOUS day of sun and sand and all the same goodness. Staring at pretty people, reading our books and mags and thoroughly relaxed.

Note: Joel didn't want us to leave on this night... kept filling our glasses for free, the little stinker...

Tuesday
Home to Scotland!