Barcelona Day 2 Part 4 - Mediterranean

We didn't make it to the Med right away when we decided to go to the sea. We walked in the general direction and found a nice park and the zoo.

The Arc de Triomf, shown below, was built for the 1888 World's Fair and is covered with agriculture and industrial themes.

Arc de Triomf

Dancing in the park

The Barcelona beaches are nice; you wouldn't know they were man-made. They were actually built in 1992 for the Olympics. Before then, industries lined the coast. Now the beaches are consistently ranked among the top urban beaches in the world.

We particularly enjoyed the sand sculptures. A guy was going around selling mojitos, and knowing full well we were about to get ripped off, we bought two to enjoy as we walked down the beach. They were lime Kool-aid with mint leaves, and the "rum" was most likely brown sugar and water. We got another one of these roving vendors to pour some more rum into our Kool-aids - his rum was at least real. We just laughed about it.

The hamburger to the right is a normal-sized burger.

 We stopped into a bar on the beach to grab some real mojitos. There was fresh mint on the bar.

The view was fantastic.

Everything was fresh. As it should be.

They had surfboards in The Ocean Store. The Mediterranean is not much of a tidal sea, so I'm thinking maybe they're for decoration?

While we were sitting there, a fantastic Louisiana-style band showed up.

I have a video of the band I will post later.  It's too large for this post.

My favorite body of water

This would be illegal in nanny state USA.

At first we thought this was a flame, like for the Olympics. Then as we approached, it looked more like a fish. Whatever it was, it made us laugh.

Palm trees at dusk

When we had strolled pretty far down and started seeing casinos and wondered if we were moving into a seedy neighborhood, we turned back and headed towards a seaside seafood dinner. I had grilled turbot. I'd never eaten turbot; it was an interesting fish, with one solid backbone and not a lot of little bones. We sat next to a British couple and we chatted the entirety of dinner. They were quite enjoyable. After we had sat there for a couple of hours eating and enjoying some Spanish wine, we asked the waiter where Chris could watch the Masters, and he recommended a nearby bar. All we had to do was tell the bartender who had recommended us and he immediately turned it to the golf.

Unfortunately, the bartender is not a photographer, but here we are at the bar with our waiter (left) and another waiter from the restaurant. We didn't know it at the time, but the bar was a place where waiters go after they get off work. They permitted us to stay even after the bar closed. It was a blast.