Barcelona 1 - Picasso and tapas

I caught the Ryanair redeye 0630 departure from Lord Foster´s flying monument, Stansted Airport.

I went there last night by bus and got there at 0125. There dozens of people sleeping on floors but the airport did not seem as busy as in the past. I found 2 chairs to sprawl out on and caught a few hours shut eye, with the aid of a can of K.

The airport awoke at 4am. I was woken by the hustle and bustle of movement.

I queued to checke in and waited behind a family. They realised that the max. luggage wait that Ryannair allowed was only 20kg. So they had flipped open on their suitcase lid and were desperately takling out clothes and putting them in other bags. They kept dragging their suitcase, flat side on the floor, towards the check in counter.

I strode through the chill morning breeze to get on the plane. Unlike most of the passengers, I walked to the back of the plane and climbed the steps. Hardly any seats were occupied so I grabbed a window seat. I was joined by 2 guys. The one who sat next to me said he had never flown before and apologised in advance for being sick.

The flight was uneventful. No projectile vomitting occurred.

Unlike the its sterotype, it was cool and raining in Barcelona. Of course, we didn´t arrive at the main Barcelona - too expensive for the passengers, who, according to Michael O´Leary, would "climb over broken glass", to pay 1p and 1c for their tickets, as I had.

We had arrived at Reus (Salou) which is 80 minutes drive away, according to the bus timetable. We arrived in 95 minutes. On the way, I helped some French women who had no map and no idea where the bus was going to arrive. So, I showed them my Time Out Barcelona map and gave them a route to their hotel on La Rambla.

As it was raining steadily, I took the Metro to Barceloneta. It´s in the Old Town between the beach and the Barri Gothic region, where my hotel was located.

I find my hotel, it was at the top of a 5 storey building. The terraced building had floors with offices of companies and homes on them. I walked up and got my key. As promised, I had blagged a double room for a single room price. The room was strictly no frills and no luxury no TV, toilet, shower or wardrobe!! There was a rail with hangars and a sink, though. It was clean, to boot.

I was hungry now, having only eaten some steak in pastry for breakfast. I went to a tapas bar. It was packed. I can´t read Catalan. So I pointed at some black morsels and asked for some. I got black pudding. I saw a ham roll and pointed at it. I got it. There was a menu and I recognised the Catalan speciality, Botifarra. I asked for it and got it in a roll. I saw Sardina on the menu. I asked for it and got sardines in a roll. To drink, I asked for beer but was told there was only cava or water. I had cava in a wide, flat, glass.

In the afternoon, it showered in bursts, I went to the Picasso museum. I liked his 44 interpreations of Velazquez´s Las Meninas. There was rotating display of sections of the original painting together with Picasso´s version of people with offset eyes and triangular heads.

In the evening, to escape another shower, I went into a restaurant and had rabbit with chocolate. The rabbit wasn´t very large, tasty or hot. The chocolate wasn´t very distinctive, either.