A benefit of working in Europe is that you get dragged to meetings in other countries like Spain and cities like Barcelona. The problem with these events? Every hotel looks the same. I look forward to a visionary meeting planner actually scheduling an hour or two for us to emerge from the meeting room to walk around and enjoy the area.

A few quick observations about Barcelona:

1. The tourist areas are beautiful and the architecture magnificent. I have seen none of it (but will be back with the family)

2. The siesta is alive and well. They take an afternoon nap and restaurants don’t open until 8:30, getting busy at 10:00. The bars don’t get busy until 2AM. How do these people work?

3. While taking a taxi from the airport with a few ‘mates’, we had a funny experience with the driver. It started with it being made clear that he did not speak English. Fine, we communicated our location and set off in the taxi where he promptly turned up the radio. To which I laughed ‘Well, I guess because he does not speak English he thought that the best approach is to drown us out with bad 80’s music’ (It was a Spanish version of Dire Straits) … which resulted in his turning the volume down. We laughed again.

4. There is also a big disparity between the tourist areas and where other people live (the slums). A friend of mine in the Canadian air force described Barcelona this way:

Barcelona is nice so long as you don’t look behind the huge barriers erected along all of the freeways.  They put them in place just prior to the 92 Olympics to prevent the world from seeing the vast amount of slums and shanty towns prevalent there.  Stick to the beaches and the standard tourist attractions and you won’t be disappointed.

From the top of the hotel …

While walking to the hotel …

 

From the hotel roof …

5. A guy on the team was mugged while walking around downtown at 1AM. The thieves are VERY good. In his case they slipped his wallet out and back without his noticing (And they left him 5 euros for a cab)

6. There were scooters everywhere. I would bet they outnumber cars.

I thought of the trip as a recon trip for the family. We will go back, sticking to the cool spots.