Rambling the Ramblas

My connections were all perfect today, but my new career as The Absent Minded Tourist continued.
I easily caught each train, arrived at Prestwick Airport, and promptly left my passport at the desk.  A couple of passengers behind me, and the desk guy called me back for it.  I'm telling you, I need a minder this week!

The Ryanair flight was great.  I was well forward in the line and got a nice window seat near the front.  And we arrived 10 minutes early!  Jaime and Adrian were waiting for me, and we drove down to the harbor to park the car, and walk the Ramblas, the main street running from the harbor to the Plaza Catalunya.  On the way, though, there was a dramatic moment in the car.  Adrian had his first loose tooth, and he managed to pull it by himself!  Raton Perez (a little mouse who is the Spanish "tooth fairy") will be making a stop by his house tonight, for sure. 

Along the Ramblas, we stopped at La Boqueria, a massive food market.  Jaime says it has kind of been touristified (not a real word, probably) with the addition of things like juice stands of all types.  Everything looked so fresh and beautiful..... well, except the icky things, like the squids and such.  I have no doubt that they were fresh, but beautiful?  No.  The weather in Barcelona is not at all like it was in Scotland yesterday - no jackets necessary.  It was H O T.  Tomorrow I will go out dressed a bit more appropriately than the long pants I wore on the plane today.  Actually, it worked out well that I was wearing long pants, because we visited the cathedral, where it is inappropriate to wear shorts.  After the Ramblas, we wandered around in the Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter), and took a lot of pictures.  Eventually, we made our way back to the harbor, and then to the hotel.

We are meeting up in the morning to ride the Barcelona Turistic Bus, and we hope that we won't get rained on.  Even if it does rain, we can still do the bus.  And I have been invited to Jaime's home for dinner tomorrow.  Actually, he said there were no other options, I was coming to dinner.  :-)
After all of the walking we have been doing in the past week, I am ready for a leisurely day of riding around.

Chilis of all kinds at La Boqueria