Country 3 - Spain!

We started our day early, with a run through Venice.  I wasn't going to miss out on this chance!  Brett and I were dress and ready to run by 7:15.  I knew it would be hot so I wore my Ink N Burn Wildflower tank and shorts.  And was I right!  Brett and I were sweating before we even started running!  We followed the signs for Rialto Bridge and then looked for signs for St. Mark's Plaza, which we found with no difficultly.  I had been wondering where all the runners were as I always look out for runners when I travel and now I found them.  We saw many runners along the coast by St. Marks.  This run was beautiful but man, it was not easy!  All those stairs and uneven surfaces made for a slow but memorable run.

After we finished our run, showered and enjoyed another delicious breakfast, we finished packing up and got on the Water Bus to the bus station.  We were flying out of a different airport this time, one about 45 mins from Venice.  The ticket guy asked twice if we had the right airport, Terrizo Airport, and we did.  We bought our tickets for 18e and found the bus.  We were ready to board in just a few minutes.  The driver checked our tickets and saw that they were for the town of Terrizo, not the airport in Terrizo.  He told us we could buy tickets from him for 20e but we only had 18e left (Brett had just bought a large bottle of water for 3e!)  We must have looked desperate because he let us on with the intention that we would get money at the airport.  We were so thankful for his kindness!
The bus ride was quick and painless.  We arrived at the airport and Brett found the ATM, which was out of service!  The driver at this point was pretty frustrated and just let us pay 15e and walked away.  Brett felt really bad so we found the currency exchange, got completely ripped off by the high commission and I searched for and found the driver at the cafe.  He gestured that I didn't need to pay the remaining 5e but I insisted and he relented.
Our flight to Barcelona was on Ryan Air which must be the Southwest of Europe!  No frills!!  The flight attendants were even selling scratch off tickets in the aisle!  But it was a smooth flight and on-time.
We landed in Barcelona and found the metro to the city.  It was a nice train but it didn't have a map of the line!  I had gotten a map at the airport and I knew about where our hotel was.  But we had no idea which stop to get off on.  And we couldn't understand the intercom, she was talking much too fast.  But the man next to me understood where I needed to go and he was also getting off at the same stop so we just followed him.
Our stop was actually a very, very large station.  We wandered the streets for a few minutes but found our hotel pretty easily.  And what a hotel it was!!!   Gran Hotel Torre Catalunya was one of the best hotels that we have ever stayed in and we've been lucky to stay in some very nice hotels (even a castle in Ireland!)  Brett had booked a suite and we were on the 17th floor, corner room, so we had an amazing view.  Two bathrooms with the biggest shower I've ever seen.  The bed was huge, I could roll over 6 times from end to end!  The wi-fi was free and really good (we've learned to really appreciate Wi-Fi) and the air conditioning was working.  We decided to explore the area around us and found that the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games were held nearby.  So we walked to the ground, up tons of stairs, past the National Museum and found the Olympic Village.

I couldn't help it, so many nude statutes!  Ink N Burn Pink Ink skirt.

The Olympic Flame

Some of the many, many stairs.  Plenty of runners getting their workout done here!

National Museum

It was getting late so we went back to the hotel and found their AMAZING bar!  The bartender made the best Sangria for us and even got me a big spoon to use to dig out all the alcohol infused fruit.  So good.  They were playing great music on the TV's and we even met someone from Carmel, a town about 15 miles from our home.  We did wander the streets again to find dinner and ate at some street cafe, Brett really enjoyed his rice/meat/bean/seafood type food served in a skillet!  We were pretty tired after getting up so early so we returned to the room for a very good nights sleep.