There is not much to say about our sprint to Barcelona, except we saw a few beautiful medieval sites on the way but resisted the temptation to stop.
We passed again the border without anyone asking anything about COVID tests or vaccination certificates.
I know I seem to stress over nothing, and both Eugen and my mother were really amused with my efforts to get the test results just in time, but rules are rules. In any case, my certificate arrived only half an hour before we crossed to Spain and courtesy to a nice call center assistant from the clinic dealing with Nice Airport testing, so that’s that.
To spare us the stress for the next milestone, I already booked us testing at a private clinic in Valencia on Monday morning. Since tests are required to board the ferry boat, I expect these will be the only certificates actually checked by anyone by the end of this trip.
I always wanted to visit Barcelona, but the city certainly exceeded all my expectations, from the beautiful architecture, the charming harbor and down to its excellent cuisine and lively atmosphere.
Except for people actually wearing masks in all public places, there is little indication of the pandemic, the streets are crowded, and people are warm and friendly.
Our hotel is located in the very heart of the city, right next to Ramblas and across the street from Güell Palace, with a rooftop terrace with a spectacular view. Hotel Gaudi has private parking and accommodates even large dogs like Schatzy with a small extra charge. The staff is kind and detail-oriented, they even scheduled breakfast in such a way as to avoid crowding in the morning.
We found Barcelona to be the perfect place for dogs: they are everywhere, locals love them and literally pamper them.
Schatzy is very friendly, and people played with him all throughout our 10km walk and didn’t even mind if he occasionally got over-excited and jumped on them… although we certainly don’t encourage him to do so.
I expect we will be returning here with the children and with our own dog, the cute beagle Zuza.
So, in the end, this was indeed a wonderful day, and we are all exhausted, but happy. We’ll see you tomorrow in Valencia.