Paris to Barcelona

 We woke up early the next morning to get packed up and to the train station for our train to Barcelona.

I had not gotten my magnet yet, so Kyran, Gemma, and I ventured out to find a magnet and some breakfast. 

The souvenir stores that had been open later in the evening the night before were locked up tight in the morning, but we did find a currency exchange store that had some magnets so I was able to get one there.

We got breakfast at the same bakery around the corner, and brought some back to Jason and Karyssa.

While we were out, Gemma got her Polaroid picture of the Eiffel Tower from the street and a man who was also there asked if I could take his photo. I happily agreed, and took a beautiful photo, except for the trash along the curb. He pointed it out and asked if I could get one of him without the trash, and I mentioned that he could clean it up with his phone. English not being his first language, he misunderstood me and went to clean up the actual litter. We had a good laugh about it when I reminded him that the app on his phone would most likely erase the trash from his photo. 

We requested an Uber when we were almost ready, but they started so send a smaller car, so we had to cancel and request again. By the time it finally arrived, we were getting close to being late for our train. The Uber driver seemed not to know how to use anything except the very loud and profane rap music coming from the speakers and the GPS. We had no air conditioning in the back, and it was miserable. 

He dropped us off about a block from the train station and pointed us in the general direction of the station, but we were still slightly lost.

We did find our platform and boarded the train with no issues. Kyran, Karyssa, and I were in a group of four seats facing each other with a table, and no one sat in the other seat, so Gemma joined us for a while. Jason's and her seats were right behind Kyran's and mine originally. After the first stop, we were joined by our ticketed seatmate who had been sitting with a friend until the person with that seat boarded. She was not very friendly. After the next stop, she moved back, and Gemma returned, but shortly after she returned again, so Gemma went back to her seat for good.

We had one train change, which didn't take long. We were on this train for significantly longer than the Eurostar, so we got to see a lot of the French and Spanish countrysides, and even had a stretch where we were on a very thin strip of land and had water on both sides of us.

We knew we'd be pushing it to make our 8pm check-in, and once we got off the train it took a while to get a taxi large enough to fit us and all of our luggage. We arranged a late check-in with our host, found our place and met Carlos, who told us about the rental and surrounding area. This was our first rental with air conditioning and it was actually too cold for me at times.

Because Barcelona is right on the coast, I was able to find a place near the beach for us to stay. After we got settled, we headed to check out the beach and find some food.

The beach was fairly crowded, with lots of people in the water and on the sand. This was a very family-friendly beach, so everyone was covered pretty well. We dipped our toes in the Balearic Sea. It was a little too cold for me, but the others waded in it for a while. Then we rinsed our feet off and headed back across the street and in the direction of the mall Carlos pointed out to find some food. Or so we thought. 

We had trouble finding anywhere with food. Even the market was more like a WalMart before they had groceries. We walked around for quite some time trying to find food, and a little longer trying to find the exit and the way back to our rental. On the way back, we did find a small store that had some food, so we did a quick grab and go of granola bars, yogurt, chicken nuggets, cereal and some other food. We could only find soy milk at this store, but the kids said they were fine with that and never complained.

We made it back to the apartment, ate, took showers, and Jason and I got to hang out on both of our balconies (one city-facing and one beach-facing), until we were exhausted and ready for bed. Between the beds being pretty comfortable and the air conditioning, it was the best night's sleep we had so far on the trip.

Walk count: 4.4 miles