Adventure in Barcelona

Well, I had an adventure tonight.

I thought I’d see the famous street La Rambla on a Friday night, and go to Starbucks and buy a Barcelona mug. I used Google Maps in my hotel room to plan my journey.

The map says it’s 3.1 km, about 2 miles. Kay and I walk about that much frequently in Orlando and it takes us about 25-30 minutes. I thought that would be a good walk. I forgot that in the city, you do a lot of waiting for red lights! So after about 30 minutes, I was about halfway there. I was at the place labeled El Triangle. I was not making much progress, it was 9 pm.

Standing at El Triangle, I saw a Starbucks. The University of Barcelona is across the street, and college kids in Spain need Starbucks too. So, I stopped my journey about halfway there.

Then I decided to take the Metro (subway) back. I like adventures. I studied the route map on the wallof the subway station.

To get from Universistat to Hospital Clìnic looks really simple.

• Take the red L1 line from Universistat to Catalunya, 1 stop.
• Change to the green L3 line.
• Take the green L3 line from Catalunya to Passeig de Gràcia to Diagonal. 2 stops.
• Change to the blue L5 line.
• Take the blue L5 line from Diagonal to Hospital Clinic. 1 stop.

For some reason I still don’t understand, when I got to the Diagonal station and followed the signs to the blue L5 line, it led me completely outside the station. No L5. I still don’t know what happened. I went back into the Metro station and tried to find any more L5 signs, but the only ones pointed to the exit. So I ended up somewhere in Barcelona, above ground, with no idea where I was. If you’ve ever used a subway map, you know they have little resemblance to reality above ground. Supposedly the Hospital Clinic station was only one subway stop away. But I didn’t know which direction nor how far.

Fortunately, my PDA has Google Maps Mobile installed. I was able to figure out how to navigate the 1.3 km to my hotel. It took about 20-30 minutes.

But I’m back in the hotel. Safe and sound.

Tomorrow, I’ll strike out for La Rambla again. I don’t know if I’ll walk or Metro. I’ll decide tomorrow.