After last night's efforts, Daniel and I were a little bit slow this morning, but as we'd purposefully made sure that this part of the trip had no plans, it didn't really matter! We finally rolled out of bed, got ourselves ready for the day, and made it down to street level by about 11am. We were pretty hungry by that time and found a little café down the road to get a feed. It was the first place in Spain we'd really been outside of the hotel and the station, places we sort've expected the English to be good, so were a little bit reserved as we went in. But, in what is quickly becoming a pattern here, we shouldn't have worried because again everybody in there was just so friendly! Could say it's not very Spainful. Or even Spainless. Our plan today was to get out and do some 'token touring', in that we'd go out and see something to make us feel we were taking some sights in so we weren't wasting a trip to Barcelona, then once our conscious was satisfied, head straight back to the hotel's rooftop pool and bar for an afternoon relaxing! Today's destination for such touring was Mont Blanc, which was just a short walk from our hotel. From the rooftop bar it looked worth a visit (it must've been something because that rooftop bar was hard to leave), with a temple looking thing, gondola ride, and a big tower all visible and calling to be explored. Plus I reckoned that on the other side of that hill we'd get a fairly good glimpse of the Mediterranean! So after our feed we made our way down the boulevard towards the temple looking thing and Mont Blanc. The boulevard lined everything up along the way, from a big square called the Plaça d'Espanya, a really big fountain, and a massive water feature coming down the side of the hill that we went up to get to the temple looking thing. It was all pretty nice. Along the way, Daniel and I continued our stereotyping across Europe, this time coming up with names for people that we thought that most would all have. I think our most likely was Juan. So now all Spanish blokes are Juan. The hound (hoond) phenomenon has also taken right off again, with dogs and their owners in the biggest concentration yet while we've been here in Europe. We were also surprised at how modern Barcelona was once on the streets. Coming in on the train yesterday, it looked the least developed and most ramshackle place we've been so far, but once we hit the streets it actually is the most modern. Once we reached the top of the stairs to the temple looking thing, we finally got to find out what it actually was - the Palau Nacional (National Palace). We didn't really want to go inside, (it housed Spanish artwork or something) but just to go see it. And it offered some pretty good views back where we'd come from too. We continued further up and around Mont Blanc, which has heaps of parkland and open space precincts, and walked through the 1992 Olympic Games area, on our way around to where we found the cable car, which could take us up the rest of the way to the top of Mont Blanc. I missed out on getting number 42 car, and I'll forever rue not delaying us. At the top was the Montjuïc Castle, which we walked right around. Finally when we got around the other side, down below us was the Barcelona Port, with the Mediterranean stretching off into the horizon - it was quite beautiful. As we continued further around, we saw the city centre of Barcelona down below us, but we already knew we'd been far enough for one day, so weren't going to head in today. Plus it was early afternoon, the sun was hot, we were hot and sweaty from our walk up the hill. What I'm leading to is saying that they were the perfect conditions to call it a day and head back for a swim! On our way back we stopped for an ice cream. The lady had no idea what we were saying so we used the universal language of pointing to the one we wanted. This had great effect and we were soon enjoying an ice cream on our descent. We finally made it back to the room at about 2ish. I immediately went and got out of my clothes, into my boardies, rubbed sunscreen all over me, and headed for the roof! Complete with my Lonely Planet and headphones to relax the arvo away. Daniel joined me and we went for a swim, and just as we'd settled in afterwards to dry on the deck chairs, Dad came up with three cold beers, after completing the washing he wanted to do. Consummate timing Dad! I sat and dried off for a couple of hours, listening to some music, having a snooze, writing my blog, all the while overlooking the Barcelona skyline from my deck chair. Pretty good way to spend the arvo. When I (eventually) got up, I found Daniel and Dad sitting in the bar, and we ordered some snacks as a late lunch and had a few pints on the roof. Even better way to spend the arvo. As night closed in, Dad, then Daniel headed downstairs for a shower, while I remained for another drink to finish another day's blog entry. When they were ready, they came back up and got me, and we headed off down the street to find a paella to eat. It was fair delicious! By the time we were done it was getting late. Dad and Daniel headed off to bed, but I decided I wanted one more beer on the roof (time for myself to call my friends), as this was the first place we had where I could go do that! I had great catch ups, finished my pint, and headed off to bed. A pretty good day all round!