3/01/2016
Flight back from
Barcelona was unfortunately not as fun. It's not very fun having a
seat in row 27 when the plane itself has only 26 rows. That got me
moved up closer to the front the plane, but as it's easyJet it
doesn't have quite the cachet as getting reseated on other flights.
I had a good weekend
in Barcelona with Egle. All together, we enjoyed a tiny bit of
sunshine on the Thursday when I arrived, sitting on the terrace and
having great views of Sagrada Familia. On Friday we caught a taxi up
to the top of the Montjuic mountain on the south side of the city,
where we visited the castle overlooking both Barcelona city and the
port, and then walked down towards the seaside where we caught a
cable car across to the beach area. February isn't exactly beach
weather even in Barcelona, but the weather was mild and we still we
are to enjoy the relatively pleasant weather.
On Friday night we
dined at Caelis, a Michelin-starred restaurant. The food was amazing
and experience extremely enjoyable. Other restaurants have nice food
and good service, but I can see now how the attentiveness and focus
on the customer is completely different at a restaurant like this one
compared to a 'normal' restaurant with good food and service.
Saturday the weather
was a bit poorer, meaning we didn't get the chance to spend quite as
much outside as we had wanted. We did, however, do a bit of shopping
after dropping bags off at a Barcelona luggage storage place (we had
to relocate from the furnished flat provided for MWC into an AirBnB).
After that we headed to the Picasso Museum, which had works from him
from his formative and earlier years. The works were therefore a bit
different from what you think of Picasso, being decidely
non-cubistic, but nonetheless was a great experience and probably the
largest number of works from any significant artist I'll ever see in
one go.
For dinner we tried
to hit up La Flauta, a very popular tapas place in central Barcelona,
but unfortunately even rain didn't keep the crowds away. We settled
for another nearby highly-rated tapas place, this one with a large
selection of craft beers including a local ale spiced with jalapeños.
For our final day in
Barcelona a visit to and tour of Sagrada Familia was in order. I
hadn't been the hugest fan of the church based on the outside, but
inside is a completely different world with rainbow colours coming in
from the stained glass windows. It was a completely different
experience and I am very pleased with our decision to visit, as I
think up until we saw the inside I really didn't see what the fuss
was about this church.
After the church, we
had a bit more of a wander through the city, but being a Sunday many
things were closed that are otherwise open during the week. We had
another tapas meal (I've had my fill of rich shredded meats) and then
it was back to the flat to grab our bags, then jump on a bus to the
airport. Those things went smoothly, and other than the fact we had
a smaller plane than had been planned for BCN-LGW, things have been
ok.
It's back to London
at hopefully-not-too-late a time, and then unfortunately back to work
tomorrow. Things should start winding down heavily in the next few
weeks, but my main client will be ramping up as we enter the final
month to year end. Fun times.
