We arrived Barcelona this morning and transferred to Hotel Colonial, our home for the next 3 nights.  We’re staying in the ‘Ciutat Vella’, the old city, with narrow streets filled with interesting little shops and cafes, beautiful squares and exquisite Gothic buildings. There’s a lot to explore here.The hotel is a nice moderate hotel in a good location.  After our speedy check in we walked to a local restaurant for a Tapas lunch. Delicious!

We didn’t waste any time, this afternoon we started off with a brief bus tour through the various areas of Barcelona ending up at the magnificent Park Guell. The grounds and houses are incredible works of art by Guadi. Everything is created with free flowing lines as you would see in nature. The mosaics benches and tiles on the houses are colourful with intricate designs. In spite of our jet lag everyone enjoyed strolling through the gardens to take in this incredible sight.  The sky is blue, the sun is shining and its a comfortable 22 degrees.

This evening we enjoyed a typical tapas style dinner at Asador de Aranda Restaurant. We enjoyed an array of appetizers: smoked red peppers, cecina from leon (smoked beef) drizzled with olive oil, marinated chicken and legumes and a main course choice of roast lamb, grilled cod fish or roasted chicken. They served fabulous Spanish wines and the the dessert was millefeuille pastry with chantilly cream.  Delicious!