London - July 28, 2009

Today was a work day but went to a fabulous dinner with colleagues at Scott's Restaurant in the Mayfair area, famous for its fish and seafood. I would highly recommend it. The next morning, it was an early departure to head to Heathrow and back to the U.S. The end of a fantastic vacation in Europe.

Barcelona - July 27, 2009

We enjoyed an early breakfast together before Gretchen and Stephanie headed to the airport and back home to the U.S. I left around midday to fly back to London arriving mid afternoon. After heading to the Sofitel St. James, checking in and getting some urgent work done, I was able to walk around Picadilly Circus one more time.

Barcelona - July 26, 2009

After another lovely breakfast at the hotel, we were back on the Bus Turistic to get to the Picasso Museum. Despite the lines, we persevered to see one of the best small museums...it covered a range of his work from its earliest days which really helped to understand his progression to his later style. Also included were several later works with the five or more pieces that showed his effort to formulate the final work.

After another quick lunch of tapas at a sidewalk cafe, we took a taxi to the area to the west of the city where the Olympics were held in 1992 and walked around a bit. Unfortunately, most everything was closed since it was Sunday. Rather than taking the bus back, we ended up walking through the neighborhood streets of Barcelona back towards the water and then hopped on the bus to get back to the hotel. For a late dinner, we headed back into town and found a nice cafe near one of the cathedrals and enjoyed a simple dinner followed by ice cream cones.

Barcelona - July 25, 2009

La Boqueria
La Boqueria

Sagrada Familia

We started the day with a lovely breakfast buffet sitting outside in the warm sun. Quite a change from London. We then embarked upon the Bus Turistic to get a sense about the city. We didn't go far before hopping off in the main part of town and walking down La Rambla and strolling through la Boqueria (the Saturday market) - such a colorful display of meats, fish, vegetables and fruit. Best I've ever seen. For lunch, we found the 4 Cats restaurant which is prominently displayed in Picasso's works and had a nice break from the heat. Then it was back on the bus to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous work in progress. We rode the elevator up to the top and walked down so we could see the unique creations from different vantage points. While a bit wiped out, we continued the bus ride as it meandered to the north and finally got off and hopped in a taxi to get back to the hotel. Dinner was a treat at Arola, with a Michelin 2 star chef at the helm...a lovely way to cap off a very full day.

London - July 24, 2009

Today was our transition day - Katie flew back to the U.S., we packed, did some last minute shopping in Knightsbridge and then headed to Gatwick for our evening flight to Barcelona. Quite an effort to get to Gatwick and when we got there, we found out that our flight was significantly delayed due to weather and an incident on the runway at Gatwick. We took off about 3 hours late, arriving at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona around 11 pm local time. Our hotel was right on the beach, a bit outside the main part of town.