Day 2
Our second day in Barcelona was a real challenge. We had unexpectedly been moved from our apartment in the Marina district to the city center. Karen wanted to stay in the Marina district because Barcelona is notoriously loud, especially late at night. The woman who moved us to our new apartment assured us that the apartment was soundproof and we wouldn't hear anything. After being up for 36 hours, we wouldn't have heard Al Queda testing explosives in the next room. However, we had booked a driver to take us to a winery the next morning at 11:30 am and he had our address in the marina. Since neither Karen or I wear a watch and we left cell phones at home, we had no way to tell what time it was. When I woke up and walked down the street to find the time I saw a clock that said 10:30. Thinking we had some time, I went back to the apartment and got Karen and we hailed a cab to meet our driver. What I did not realize is that Barcelona had just moved to daylight savings time and it was actually 11:30. We were late.
We tried using a pay phone to call the driver to tell him we were late, but could not get it to work. It wouldn't take our Euros or our phone card. Even if we could call an operator, what would we say? We wandered around until a city worker showed us an Internet cafe. For about $1 an hour you could get Internet access. I emailed the driver's company and asked them to send him over. No luck. The guy at the Internet cafe only spoke Catalon (although he was listening to Dire Straits on the radio). Finally, I was able to get him to show me how to use the phone and we got the driver to meet us 2 hours late.
Our nemesis (left)
I arranged for us to have a driver take us to a Cava winery outside of Barcelona. Cava is Spanish champagne and the grapes are grown in the Penedes region. Cordoneiu is the second largest cava producer in Spain. They make 350,000 bottles of cava a day using the traditional French process. Our tour guide Vincent has worked at Cordoneiu since he was 15 when he started at the winery sweeping floors. He took Karen and I and a couple from Scotland on a tour of the winery. The caves under the winery house the cava while it is aged.
some tunnels are over 500 yards long with
Our second day in Barcelona was a real challenge. We had unexpectedly been moved from our apartment in the Marina district to the city center. Karen wanted to stay in the Marina district because Barcelona is notoriously loud, especially late at night. The woman who moved us to our new apartment assured us that the apartment was soundproof and we wouldn't hear anything. After being up for 36 hours, we wouldn't have heard Al Queda testing explosives in the next room. However, we had booked a driver to take us to a winery the next morning at 11:30 am and he had our address in the marina. Since neither Karen or I wear a watch and we left cell phones at home, we had no way to tell what time it was. When I woke up and walked down the street to find the time I saw a clock that said 10:30. Thinking we had some time, I went back to the apartment and got Karen and we hailed a cab to meet our driver. What I did not realize is that Barcelona had just moved to daylight savings time and it was actually 11:30. We were late.
We tried using a pay phone to call the driver to tell him we were late, but could not get it to work. It wouldn't take our Euros or our phone card. Even if we could call an operator, what would we say? We wandered around until a city worker showed us an Internet cafe. For about $1 an hour you could get Internet access. I emailed the driver's company and asked them to send him over. No luck. The guy at the Internet cafe only spoke Catalon (although he was listening to Dire Straits on the radio). Finally, I was able to get him to show me how to use the phone and we got the driver to meet us 2 hours late.
Our nemesis (left)
I arranged for us to have a driver take us to a Cava winery outside of Barcelona. Cava is Spanish champagne and the grapes are grown in the Penedes region. Cordoneiu is the second largest cava producer in Spain. They make 350,000 bottles of cava a day using the traditional French process. Our tour guide Vincent has worked at Cordoneiu since he was 15 when he started at the winery sweeping floors. He took Karen and I and a couple from Scotland on a tour of the winery. The caves under the winery house the cava while it is aged.
some tunnels are over 500 yards long with