Aug 01, 2009
Day 14 Girona-Barcelona
We woke up very tired in Girona. Since our room was quite nice, we decided to just have ourselves a rest instead of hurling ourselves into action. Our only agenda item was to drive to the Barcelona airport where a car was picking us up at 1 pm to take us to our hotel. We rested for a while, then got a coffee and a croissant, then checked out and hit the road.
Samantha was a bit of a pain on the route. We saw plenty of signs that said airport, but she always wanted us to go somewhere else. I have to admit I was really looking forward to packing Samantha away in the suitcase and dropping the Golf off at Avis for 4 refreshing car-free days in Barcelona. John did a great job driving, and Samantha did a great job directing us, but it was pretty tiring all that hopping around.
Soon we found the Airport and the Avis rental area and dropped off the car. Goodbye Golf! Goodbye Samantha! And Christian, our driver, was right there to meet us. He was very friendly and spoke perfect English and told us all about local trends in the economy and politics. I had a little bit of a hard time relaxing at first because I was so used to navigating that I kept feeling like I needed to tell Christian which roads to take. But in no time we were at the hotel, and Christian told us we made a good choice because the hotel was hip and close to everything—right near the University in the Eixample area.
We walked to the check-in, and were greeted by Carmen, the lovely receptionist who had been very helpful with our booking. We purchased this hotel package through www.luxurylink.com so it came with breakfasts, massages, free drinks, and a dinner. We have used the auction site before for reserving places in Costa Rico, St. Lucia, and Thailand. It has always been wonderful. We were anxious to see our new home for the next 4 nights, and Carmen walked us upstairs to the room.
It truly exceeded our expectations! It was a gorgeous suite with 2 bathrooms, a living room, and a huge bedroom with a King bed and floor to ceiling windows. We were so happy we decided to splurge for this relaxing last part of the trip. We took a few pictures, got freshened up, and went for a walk to get some Tapas!
After a light snack of Tapas, we came back and had a quick nap. Then we walked to La Rambla—the crowded tree-lined pedestrian mall so famous with tourists. And tourists there were. A few too many for my taste. But we found a Desigual store and I bought two dresses and John bought a shirt, so the trip was a success.
After shopping, we came back to the hotel and showered to get ready for our reservations at Hisop. We were really looking forward to the tasting menu at this innovative and hip restaurant. We ate an incredible 8 course meal that started with a gin and tonic oyster with horseradish foam, and ended with a special morel mushroom crème catalan with passion fruit ice cream. I think that was the best dessert I ever had. Loved it! We were full and tired, so we took a cab home and went to sleep!
