Day 7 was a free day, our last day in Barcelona. I remembered we had a little balcony and got a quick photo as I was getting dressed.
Our group tried to eat the most authentic things we could. We ate at no American chain restaurants and we adamantly avoided Starbucks. Churros and chocolate consistently came up as an authentic Barcelonian breakfast so we messaged the whole group and told them we were skipping hotel breakfast and going in search of churros and chocolate.
After getting turned away from a spot that was closed, we ended up at Forns Del Pi. The lady taking our orders made us feel like we were at the Beacon, being herded quickly through the line. But this...this was already worth it. A cappuccino, five fresh churros and a cup of warm chocolate.
We were a happy group! This was amazing.
We had a few minutes to explore before the museum opened so we ran to a nearby park and hopped on the playground.
I love fun people and it made my heart happy to be with such fun people.
I mean look at Emily's pure joy!
We took several cool group photos as we explored the area around the museum.
This is the tree I mentioned earlier. The Sunshine Tree or Scrambled Egg Tree. They looked so beautiful against the bright blue skies.
This is a closeup of the individual flowers. They reminded me of snap dragons.
The huge, full whale skeleton let me know I had made the correct choice for my day. As you walked up the stairs, you were in the belly of the whale.
The gazelle with a gazelle.
Prehistoric skull.
A pelican eating a fish. All my favorite things.
There was a working piano and Sean sat down and showed off his skills.
We took the Metro back to Barceloneta, the beach near our hotel, and found a place called "El Raco for lunch. I have no memory of this, but it's in the sketchbook so I guess it's true. By the time we went into the museum we had expanded our group to include Emily, Jericho, Sean, Anne, Ashley, Katherine, Haley, Jessica and Katie. After lunch we all split up to take care of all the last minute things we wanted to do before leaving the city.
Ever the beach bum, I opted to go with Emily and Sean back to the beach to search for sea glass. We had discovered the surprise treasure trove of sea glass on the beach earlier in the week and wanted more. We didn't change clothes, we just pulled off our shoes. The rocks and glass felt nice at first but after a half hour of crunching, our feet began to feel tender.
After tenderizing our feet, we had to walk across the fully sun-heated sidewalk to a shady spot to put our socks and shoes back on. We needed gelato to make ourselves feel better. Then we headed back to the hotel to recharge our phones and regroup.
Ashley had found first century Roman columns and agreed to take me to see them since it was a bit of a maze to get there. Several people wanted to do various things in the same area so we stuck together and started checking things off our lists.
Evidence of Jessica touching the column just in case I ever need it.
As we walked, I was still constantly amazed by all the new things I was discovering. Ashley was leading us with her phone and she kept finding new suggestions for things were were near. There was a spot near a church where Columbus had an important meeting and a rumor that somewhere nearby there was a magical unicorn that granted wishes. If you're not me, I'll let you read that sentence again. Of course I wanted to pause our to-do list and find a magical unicorn that grants wishes!
We walked in circles for a bit looking everywhere for a unicorn. It could have been anywhere, even just a minor detail on an ornate building, but we were intent on finding it. Or, at least Ashley and I were intent...I'm pretty sure the others were ready to get to the things they wanted to accomplish. We had circled several times around where the location was pinned so in a time-desperate move, I found a security guard inside a church and told him we were looking for a magical unicorn that granted wishes. Just one grown man talking to another. Unicorn was a bit much for translation but when I put my finger as a horn on my head, he smiled and said "AHHH!" and motioned for us to follow him.
Just outside the door where we were standing, he pointed up and there it was. A magical unicorn! We made our wishes and felt very accomplished and we started back on our way.
After a couple of quick stops, we turned back in the general direction of the hotel and just happened to walk past 4 Gats, the café where Picasso used to hang out. He had also designed the menu for the café. We assembled to take a photo with our now smaller group, but then decided that wasn't quite enough.
How many times in your life do you get an opportunity like this? We asked for a table and a round of espressos. We ate complementary chocolates, used the bathroom that Picasso and his famous artist friends used and we were back on our way.
Not so fast! Soon we heard music and cheering and somewhere near the unicorn church we saw the tail end of a parade with larger than life puppets. No idea what it was but it was cool.
This pigeon graffiti was next level funny.
We regrouped again and gathered at Taller de Tapas again for our last supper in Barcelona. While we waited for a table, Jessica made too much eye contact and got pulled into a street performers' acrobatic trick. Jessica is the one dabbing in the back as the guy flips over her.
As much trouble as we had at times getting tables for large groups, the lady here made it very easy. Pretty sure she put us in front of other groups and got us seated very fast. The food was great and the company was greater. Such a fun group to spend our last night with.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel, buying chocolates and water before packing up for our next plane ride.
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