Saturday

content/blog/wk13day6.md

@@ -1,7 +1,78 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Saturday:"
+title: "Week 13, Saturday: Barcelona to Zurich"
 date: 2024-10-26T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/soulfulliquid-02.png" alt="Credit: Soulful Liquid, YouTube" >}}
+
+Ahhh what a wonderful few days in Barcelona. Yesterday when we went to bed, it started raining. Then
+at 02:00 or so, we both got abruptly woken up by a thunderclap just overhead. There was a bright
+flash of white and a very loud and immediate thunder. Wowza! I fell alseep pretty quickly after the
+excitement, but Marina spent a bit longer before being able to fall asleep. Stupid weather!
+
+This morning it's still raining, so we decide to take our breakfast in the hotel. It's a nice
+spread, Marina takes an _Americano_ and I take a _Mediterraneo_, and all sorts of yummy food is
+presented. We take our time eating it, as our checkout is only at noon, and we are not super keen on
+walking through the rain to the metro and then the airport.
+
+Marina sees an Aeronautical museum at the airport, but unfortunately it's open only until 13:00 on
+Saturdays. Not to worry, I have not seen much of the city on this particular trip, so I offer
+perhaps to go check out this little Gaudi wall a few blocks up from us. We find the wall and the
+statue of _Antoni Pl&agrave;cid Guillem Gaud&iacute; i Cornet_, as his full name rings. From here,
+we take our time walking through a light drizzle and decide to take a look at the museum for
+forbidden art - these are all artworks that were displayed at some point, but due to pressure,
+typically from old, straight, white, christian dudes, were demanded to be removed. I find some of it
+curious, other pieces are a bit pushy, and overall I think that old straight white christian dudes
+should just chill out more.
+
+After this small (but in my opinion, very cool) museum, it's still raining. So we walk over to a
+small cafe and have a cup of cappucino and share a red velvet cupcake. My body is sluggish and slow.
+My favorite activity would be curling into a ball and sleeping some more right now, so Marina goes
+easy on me. We slowly walk East to the _Arc de Triomf_ and from there through the promenade and into
+the park and towards the Equestrian statue of General _Joan Prim_.
+
+We have a drink at a small greek bar/restaurant, and from there it's pretty close to catch the metro
+at _Barceloneta_. We decide to minimze the rainy walk and take the metro L4 up to _Verdaguer_,
+where we descend like twelve escalators (not even kidding!) to catch the L5 metro to _Collblanc_ and
+from there it's easy: just jump onto the L9S directly to the airport. And all of this for a EUR 5.50
+train ticket. The public transport in this city is **excellent**!
+
+We are at the airport at about 17:30 for a 18:45 planeride. That means we should probably have some
+dinner before boarding. Marina insists that we eat Tapas, and since our buddy Ram&oacute;n had
+previously suggested we drink a wine from Priorat, we oblige. "One of everything!", is the order,
+and soon after there are seven dishes on our table.
+
+The food is really good - not just by "airport"-standards, but just in general: great preparation,
+nice and moist _tortilla_, crispy braised _padrones_, thinly sliced _jamon_, and six units of
+_croquetta_. We also enjoy the Priorat red wine and report back to the _Hardship Brotherhood_ on our
+progress.
+
+We finish our dinner and hop-skip to the gate, where the boarding has already started. We get into
+the plane, there is a bit of a kerfuffle on airplane seats - our assigned seat does not exist
+because they changed the aircraft. We are not alone, and one set of people even got assigned _the
+same_ seat. Hilarity ensued but in the end, everybody managed to sit.  Our flight home is
+_tranquillo_, and we land at Zurich airport at about 21:20, and are home at about 22:00 or so.
+
+We catch up with Quinn who has enjoyed the time 'off of parents', probably more so than I enjoyed
+the time 'off of son', and we open up the gazillion packages in the mail. Marina went to town on
+Aliexpress it seems. I also may have ordered a package or two :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2215.JPG" caption="The breakfast spread at Upper Diagonal on Saturday morning - yummy!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2216.JPG" caption="This small wall with gate made by Gaudi is a lesser known treasure of the city" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2218.JPG" caption="Gaudi's artwork in the city landscape cannot be ignored in Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2220.JPG" caption="The museum of Forbidden Art shows all sorts of pieces that had been previously banned" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2221.JPG" caption="We shared a red velvet cupcake at a local bakery" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2225.JPG" caption="The Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2226.JPG" caption="Quinn loves pibbins, so I sent him a picture of a few we found in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2228.JPG" caption="The train station of Francia just north of Barceloneta, Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2229.JPG" caption="In the subway we took twelve escalators down into the core of the Earth, to get to the L5 train" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2230.JPG" caption="At the airport, we go 'Baby, one more time', and drink a wine from Priorat." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2233.JPG" caption="Our tapas at the airport is delicious, and we thoroughly enjoy it, albeit quickly" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2237.JPG" caption="Our Vueling airplane has changed, so lots of folks including us no longer have valid seats" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}