On Friday morning, Marina dropped me off at the airport on her way to work. I got to do the standard pass through security and wait around a while for the flight. The flight to Houston was average - I tried to nap a little and watched a movie on the iPhone. I had an hour and a half to kill in Houston so walked around a little and got some food from a healthy restaurant that made my stomach feel a little queasy. On to the next plane for the long flight to London. This one had personal video screens so I watched a couple movies while trying in vain to fall asleep.

I arrived in London about 9:30am their time . The immigration officer was nice but gave me the standard questioning. I caught the Tube into the city, switched lines and got off at Monument to see Leadenhall Market (aka, Diagon Alley). All the shops were closed on Sat so it was mostly deserted. The weather that day was cloudy and cool, but thankfully not raining. Rode the Tube again to Embankment, went across the Millenium Bridge and walked along the south waterfront past the London Eye and Tate Gallery. It was very, very crowded with people. I got a couple pictures of Spanky with Big Ben and Parliament. Then I walked past Big Ben and by Westminster Abbey to Victoria station where I caught the Gatwick Express to the airport (almost $30 for a half hour train ride). This airport is interesting in that it doesn't tell you which gate your flight is going to be out of until the last possible minute so everyone stands around the departures screen waiting for it to update then races off to the gate.

Sitting next to me on the flight were a couple typical British blokes - a father and son - going off to Spain for some fishing . Of course they were ordering beer after beer and the father kept repeating the same things to me (it seems the alcohol affected him more than his son). Made it to Barcelona and I caught the aerobus into the city and it dropped me off just a block from the hostel I was staying at. I checked in, dropped off my stuff and freshened up a little before heading out into the city (by this time around 8pm). I walked through the Universitat area to go looking for the Gaudi building Casa Mila. I was a street off most of the time but eventually found it. Then I went to Las Ramblas (the pedestrian area) to walk there, the side streets and into the Gothic Quarter. Some of the side streets were neat with the little tapas bars and old feel. I was out a little past 11pm. . .not too bad for someone who's hardly slept the last couple days. The hostel had wi-fi so I was able to FaceTime with Marina back home.
Barcelona is one of those cities that shows off how good weather can shape the urban landscape with pedestrian areas, lots of outdoor cafes, bicycle trails, etc... It's really nice to be somewhere with all that to offer.