Barcelona hop on hop off day

Random thoughts:
Barcelona was awesome.
The city was designed to be very functional. Bike lanes and pedestrian paths are on all major boulevards. Lots of motorcycles buzz around the city with ample street parking for them.  One thing that we found to be brilliant is how the buildings on the corners are constructed to be built at an angle, opening up the intersections so cars turning right don't block traffic....they can start pulling forward while pedestrians are crossing because the crosswalks are set back from the corners also.  The configuration lets so much more light into the neighborhoods in the mist of the tall structures.

Food and drink is very reasonable and Moe and Annie, the tapas are way better than the ones we had in Madrid. The people don't seem to drink water with their meals. We asked for water one night and the waiter gave Mark another beer said it was his treat. But he took away the half full beer Mark was working on and didn't give me anything!  The same waiter had apologized to us for suggesting too much food when we were ordering so he cut our bill in half. Another weird thing..... They gave us a little bowl of delicious salty and oily Marcona almonds to start. Then they started arriving on the dishes we ordered. We seriously had at least four big handfuls of these almonds and we didn't even finish the ones in the little bowl. He must have been the owner. He treated us to an after dinner drink. It was some kind of persimmon wine. He kept offering us more. Mark was pouring his in my glass as I drank it. Wasn't bad ;).

There is so much to see in Barcelona. We did hop on hop off pretty much all day and into the night so we could see some of the sites lit up. A number of Gaudi's "masterpieces" (La Pedrera, Casa Batllo, and Sagrada Familia) were seen from the bus. His style is not my cup of tea.
One of my favorites was taking a tram up to Castell de Montjuic where the view of Barcelona and the waterfront were amazing.
We then explored the area at the base on foot and discovered beautiful gardens, the museum (architecture of the building was great), fountains, and some hot rod race that was going on. Little sports cars doing donuts and other tricks.
Hopped back on the bus to watch the sun set. It was a great day for us followed by a wonderful dinner at a little place not far from our apartment.
As we were walking back after dinner, we notice someone in a sleeping bag in a doorway and heard a series of really loud farts. Mark says to me....you probably woke him up. He thought it was me that did it!
This morning we got to take our time getting ready since our flight wasn't until noon. The front desk called a cab for us and when we were waiting in front a cab pulled over and the driver was aggressively telling us to come. We asked if the hotel had called him and he said yes. Meanwhile another cab pulls up and this driver is honking his horn while the receptionist from the hotel comes out and starts pointing to the cab in back. The driver in back starts scolding the first driver and apparently works up quite a sweat because by the time we are all in his cab we are overcome by the worst case of BO ....Mark and I are looking at each other with our eyes bugging  out and then both open our windows. Meanwhile our driver has radioed and put in a complaint about the sneaky driver. And he was talking fast......and sweating more.
Next thing you know he closes our windows and locks them. We are trapped in this BO cab with no air for a half hour and can't open our windows. We suffered in silence because  we didn't want to upset him. Our goal was to have him cool down and stop sweating!
Well, I am finishing writing this as we wait at the airport for the bus into Palermo. Looking forward to exploring Sicily!