Max Europe T-1

Yesterday I took an exceedingly early flight out of Munich to Barcelona (7:25am is just to early a flight!).

The question then is why? The answer is relatively simple. I've never been to Spain and if I was going to be going there for a conference I didn't just want to see the inside of the conference center and thats all. I wanted to see a little of where I was going.

So I arrived around 10am, and caught the train from the airport, switched to the yellow line at Passieg da Gracia and then got off at Ciutedella Vila Olimpica and walked the 400 or so meters to the hotel, checked in, changed, grabbed my camera and pocket guide to Barcelona and headed out the door.

First things first.

- If you are in to bird watching, and I don't mean the flying kind at the moment, the first thing you need to do is head directly to the beach, about 70% of the women sunbath topless. 70% that means all shapes, sizes and ages all the way up to *shiver* Granny age.

- Make sure you get a detailed map! Some of the maps that come with the city guides leave out some of the names of the little alleyways, and if you are like me and like to wander down these "alleyways" hoping for a photo op then it helps to have a detailed map.

- The Barri Gotica and La Rambla neighborhoods are part of the old city, the streets are narrow and ramble along (probably where it got it's name). It's very easy to get turned about here and it smells quite strongly of dog urine. Thankfully the Barcelonians are quite adamant about picking up after their dogs. Once past the unpleasant smell it has a lot of charm and a lot of history, museums, remnants of ancient roman construction and an Ice-cream stand on just about every corner.

- If you need to eat supper before 8 or 9pm you are mostly going to have to go to tourist traps as "authentic" Barcelona restaurants are just opening at 6pm.

I have uploaded some images to my flickr account.

Today I will go and visit a few buildings designed by the famous architect Gaudi (from the pictures I have seen I think it's where the word 'gaudy' comes from but it may just be a coincidence). Later today I will head over to the convention center and pick up my name badge and ready myself for Max.