Last we had left, the group had just finished an incredible and looooong lunch at a small restaurant on Avenue Diagonal. Our apartment was only six or seven blocks away and it was decided we all needed a baby tiger snooze prior to going out for the evening.
Following naps, we all got dressed up for our "fancy" night out on the town. We kicked things off on the rooftop terrace with Cava (Spanish champagne), Brie, and crackers. I have to give props to my husband on this one. This was all his idea, my little host with most.
The sky looked gorgeous and provided the perfect backdrop. Just breathtaking.
The Ladies
Cheers to Barcelona!
Me and My Handsome Man
This is what my face looks like the majority of the time I'm around Jim - laughing; hands down the funniest person I know. There's no telling what he just said.
Me and my girl, Erica miss her :(
Unlike the Spanish who would prefer to have dinner closer to 11 pm or midnight, we were starving by 9 pm. We walked up (and down and back up again) the main street near our apartment before settling on a tapas restaurant with a pretty menu outside the door. I'm still not sure why we picked that place; we couldn't understand a single item on the menu and there was not a soul inside.
But we lucked out and hit the jackpot! It was fantastic! Since we couldn't read the menu at all, we simply walked up to the bar area where the tapas were displayed and just pointed at everything we wanted.
Before long our table was covered in plates. Our eyes were clearly larger than our stomachs but we just couldn't help ourselves. Delish!
The boys weren't about to leave a single tapas on that table no matter how full they were and before long they were suffering from a severe case of the tapas sweats.
"So full.....but can't stop."
After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we had our sights set on La Terrazza - a schnazzy bar and night club on the rooftop of a tall building. We took the elevator to the top, made the rounds checking the place out before setting up shop near the pool. We sat there staring at each other for about 30 seconds before I blurted out "Lord Byron's anyone?" This was just not our scene. A little too "Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza" for us. People were there to see and be seen.
Erica and I had not chosen the proper footwear for a night of walking mile after mile (ok, it was probably only one mile total, but our feet really hurt) so we opted to take a cab....3 blocks. We slipped into some more comfortable shoes and met the group across the street at the infamous, Lord Byron.
We had the place practically to ourselves and spent the next few hours rockin' out to whatever music we wanted. Everything from Queen to Abba to Sublime. Oriel, our new friend and bartender had told us that the place wouldn't fill up until closer to 3:15 am. Sure enough, by 3:30 the place was packed, shoulder to shoulder.
As 6:00 am neared, Erica insisted we stay until then. We were the first in that night and we should be the last out. So we did.
Since we had really only visited a very small portion of the sights the day before, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed early enough to head over and catch the bus tour.
Back on the double-decker bus
With the exception of the Picasso Museum and the Las Ramblas outdoor market, we were able to see everything we had hoped to.
Jim provided the entertainment while visiting the Placa Catalunya...
When the bus stopped for a bit to "get back on schedule," it was just enough time for us Binghams to rest our eyes.We had dinner that evening at another wonderful tapas restaurant near the Sagrada Familia. More food, more sangria, and a lot more laughs.
From here we ventured over to the Michael Collins Irish Pub just around the corner. Just when Brad and I were about to take a nap on the bar, we both caught a second wind and ended up having a blast.
And because it was now "tradition" we ended the night back at Lord Byron.
Before we knew it, our long weekend in Barcelona was coming to an end. I don't think we could have handled another night in that town. I had slept all of 10 hours....for the entire trip. Lunch, a little souvenir shopping and one last visit to the Sagrada Familia was all that took place on our final day. We said goodbye to Erica who left mid-afternoon and the rest of the group boarded our bus back to Girona shortly after.
Little did we know we had another long night ahead of us.
The only RyanAir flight back to Frankfurt Hahn didn't depart until 9:45 pm. This we were prepared for....what we were not prepared for was the pilot coming over the loud speaker just after we had boarded saying that due to a storm we would be sitting on the tarmac for another 2 and a half hours. Como say what?!
And that wasn't even the worst part. I could sit there and sleep for the next 2 and a half hours for all I cared EXCEPT that it was about 95 degrees on that plane! I kid you not, we had a plane full of people just sitting in their own sweat. It was awful.
Fortunately, we had Jim to keep us (and anybody within earshot) entertained for the duration of the waiting period.
Pilot: We're going to have to ask that all electronic devices including cell phones and iPods stay turned off while we're on the tarmac.
Jim: Yeah, that's NOT going to happen!
We arrived at Frankfurt Hahn just after 1:00 am and still had another hour to drive. Exhausting...but so worth it.
I could not have planned a better way to end our time in Europe. It had been a weekend packed full of great memories and a lot of laughs. Needless to say, we went out with a bang.
