London/Barcelona

22 November 2011 We're dealing with a super-slow, but free, WiFi connection here in our hotel in Barcelona, so I'm just going to shut up and let you see the pictures that took more than an hour to upload.

This is the view from our below-ground hotel window in Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London.

London is getting ready for the 2012 Olympics.  Construction is everywhere.  On our first morning in the city, workers severed a power line, sending our whole block into a blackout.  We were just finishing breakfast in a cafe at the time.  It felt just like being in NJ.

This is a shop in the Covent Garden area that sells panda paraphernalia.  Competition for Hello Kitty, or just plain creepy?

London has started a bikeshare program.  Here's a row of rental bikes at night:

The Brunswick Centre used to be low-income housing.  Now renovated, the flats are just as expensive as anywhere else in London.  Here's an acrobatic kitty prowling a wide ledge on one of the top floors.

Unlike any of the architecture around, the Brunswick Centre is imposing in its in-your-face concrete and glass.  Still, I wouldn't mind having that much light coming into my house.  In the plaza below was a street market where people were selling homemade baked goods, bread, sausages, and paella.

You're seeing correctly:  a sunny day in London.

We usually stay in the cheapest hotels we can find.  This time we tried one step up.  In Barcelona, Jack found a five-star hotel for about 60 euro per night.  The going rate, as we saw posted by the entrance, is 310 euro.  Barcelona had a hotel boom a handful of years ago; now they can't fill the rooms.  Their loss, our gain.  The country is about to go under.  We went through our English pounds like water; our Euros are lasting much, much longer here.  Anyway, the hotel room (here I'm playing with my new iPhone 4S camera, which might be better than the little one I've been carrying around on rides.)

We had lunch in the lobby at 4 p.m.  Withdrawal be damned, I'm consuming copious amounts of coffee, even late in the day.  It seems like a good idea at the time, but I pay for it at night.  I'll dry out on the flight back home, Aleve in hand.

This little iPhone camera captures tap sweat in detail:

The hallway on our floor is as orange as it looks.

Playing with the phone camera at the window:

We're going to try to see the chocolate museum today.  In Catalan, the x is pronounced "ch."

Window shopping at night:

Graffiti:

Our friend Kevin collects pictures of doors.  Here's the first of many for you, Kevin:

Yesterday, one of Jack's literature crowd buddies, who has been living in Barcelona for 20 years, gave us a walking tour of the city.  More doors, ornate architecture, and a building by Gaudi:

Gaudi (we plan to see more today):

A fireplace inside a former mansion-apartment, now furniture store:

More of the Gaudi building:

Close-up of a column:

John took us to a farmer's market.  Wild mushrooms:

The four buildings in this court were moved here, stone by stone.  I forget why.

One of the many nicknames for one of our kittens, Moxie, is Moxo.  The other kitten is Mojo.  Since the x in Catalan is pronounced "ch," this plaque captures both of their names in one.  I can't seem to work Burnaby into this one.

At the end of the walk, we were at the harbor.  In the background, to the left, is a cathedral with, as John explained, a flying Virgin Mary on top.

One of the planters outside of the hotel has a bird of paradise flower.  I've never seen one outside of a arboretum greenhouse.

So that's the trip in pictures so far.  We leave Barcelona tomorrow.  I hope we can get a faster WiFi connection in our Cordova and Madrid hotels, because if we don't it could be ages before I get around to uploading pictures again.