Barcelona - 19 September 2011 (4)

Once out of the hotel, I decided to turn left for a change.  There were lots of shops, especially shoe shops.  I found a nice pair of boots in one, reduced to €15, but decided not to buy because our suitcase was at the limit for weight.  One very stylish shop only seemed to sell clothes with a significant proportion of orange.  We turned left and passed a vegetarian restaurant.  Unfortunately, it seemed about to close and, having scanned the menu, it didn’t look as if it had anything my mum would have liked as everything seemed to be based on mushrooms and artichokes.  So we wondered on and found a patisserie where we finally had our coffee and some very naughty cakes.

We walked on and soon found ourselves in University Square.  We started to turn back but then took a left fork.  From there, I could see the building currently being restored at the top of the Plaça de Catalunya, so I turned left onto Gran Via Corts Catalanes.

On one corner was a nice tapas bar with seats outside.  We sat down, ordered some orange juice and watched the world go by, passing comments on the more notable people.  Several women must have visited the orange shop we saw earlier as we admired several burnt orange cardigans.  I was amazed by the way that people cycled on the pavements as if it were their right.  It might have been, but it seemed very dangerous in a place where there were so many pedestrians.  This annoys me in York too – it gives us cyclists a bad name.

A young man and woman walked up to the door in front of us with their dog.  They both had tattoos, especially the woman who had them all over her arms and legs and the shaved part of her head was dyed turquoise.  The guy disappeared inside the building and the dog waited for him eagerly.  He was clearly torn between waiting for his master and being with the woman, so he kept going back and forth, looking very alert.  When the guy reappeared, the dog ran to him, skidded on the tiled entrance and went straight between his legs!

We decided to order some patatas bravas instead of having a full meal.  This worked out very well.  Before it started to get dark, we walked back to the hotel, making a small diversion to look at the statues and fountains in the square.  Back in our room, we just chilled after all the walking we had done.  I caught up with my journal and read a lot.