Sadly I had no luck finding a SIM card before the bike tour. I ran in to Placa Jaume just before 11 am and approached one bike group, only to be told they were full. Fine, back to Plan A: Fat Tire Bike Tours. I'd only gone to plan A because Fat Tire takes an hour longer than the other, so I wasn't too bummed out to go back to Plan A.
Turned out to be a good choice. Our guide was personable and witty, and the group was nice. Lots of Americans - some from NY and Baltimore, one from New Orleans, and of course me. We rode from site to site, and got a quick overview of each one. For some - Sagrada Familia, for example - that was enough for me; others I want to try to get back to. We ended with drinks and lunch on the beach, a nice way to conclude. Oh - the big fish is a Frank Gehry design, which I thought was interesting as he did the theater in Millenium Park.
I wandered the Barri Gothic neighborhood for a bit afterward, then headed back to the hotel for a snooze, research, and a change of clothes. While in the room (my 2nd here so far, BTW!) it started raining, so I ended up spending more time in the hotel than planned.
Back out again to 1) buy a SIM card, 2) find the ch
eese place, and 3) find the espadrille place. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad! I got caught up in the shopping and wandering on the way and ran out of time for the cheese and espadrille places. I ditched the cheese place, guessing I'll go there on tomorrow's Gourmet Walk. I wandered some more, and found a church that I haven't been able to identify; when I looked at the notices on the bulleting board, I was stunned to see two in Polish! How very odd.
Some more random wandering, then dinner at Opote, recommended by my Rough Guide. Of
course the waitress spoke no English, and the menu was all in Spanish! Fortunately, I recognized bacalhau in the starters, and asked her for a "pescado" entree, and we were very pleased that we got my meal ordered! - even though I had no idea what, specifically, I was getting! It all was excellent - the starter was a salad of tomato, onion, pimento, olives and salt cod. The entree was monkfish with some kind of tasty sauce; clams (which I had to ask the waitress for the name of in Spanish, come back and look it up, to realize what they were. I never saw a clam unfried before!); mussels; and shrimp. I did not eat the shrimp and ignored it as much as possible. But I ate everything else, yum! For dessert I managed to order "pina" (aka pineapple) which was the perfect sweet/tart flavor to end on.
After all that food, I decided to walk back to the hotel - the night is warm, and it was so pretty to poke along the streets and window shop. I popped into the corner store near the hotel and found they have Fresca Zero, yay! so I bought some, and a bottle of water; it's very dehydrating here.
Tomorrow's plan is ambitious: the Gourmet Walk, watching dancing at the cathedral, and hopefully a concert. And of course food - I hope there are enough meals to get in all the food I want to taste...!
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