Barcelona tennis open

So all the rain yesterday cancelled so many of the tennis matches that there were extras played today.  We tried to figure out what our tickets would get us in to.  Wendy assumed we would just be able to get into the quarter final matches which wouldn’t start until later in the afternoon.  

Started off the morning with a walk along the port, it is a little overcast, but nothing too bad, so hopefully we will get to the tennis.  Did a loop around to where we had dinner last night so we could see the Post Office building in the light.  Explored a few of the little back streets, always lots of fun.  Worked our way back to our apartment and went to the Columbus Monument which is right outside our apartment as we had read there is an elevator you can take to the top for a nice view of the port.  There is also an information booth inside the monument; we asked if they knew anything about the tennis, of course they didn’t.  Plus the elevator is closed for repairs for about a month, guess we’ll miss out on that.  Back to the apartment and I found a chat going on that looks like our tickets are good for all matches today so off we go.

 

Maritime museum

Columbus monument

Port Authority building

Post office

Inside post office

Love these little streets in Old Town

Andre pulling the big cats tail

Very easy for us to find the tennis club.  The metro is right outside our apartment, and it is on the same metro line we need to the tennis.  Information had told us to take a bus when we got off, but it was so close to walk we skipped on the bus.  We pass by another house that Guadi was involved in, it is so easy to spot them now.  Arrived at the tennis at about 10:45 and the first match had just started on Center court.  This tournament is clay court, so many of the top names in tennis aren’t here, only the ones that specialize in clay court, or I guess are getting ready for the much bigger French Open. They are still finishing the round of 16, there are 4 courts in use, on center court you have a reserved seats, all the other courts it is just free seating.  First match we got to see Rafael Nadal.  Our seats were fantastic, this is not a huge stadium so really every seat would be good, but we were really surprised with how close we were as we had bought tickets about ½ way up on line.  All of those little habits that Nadal has before he serves is really funny to see in person.  Because of all of the delays from yesterday we actually got to see Nadal play and win 2 matches.  All together today we watched 5 matches, we were there for 7.5 hours.  Another highlight was we saw Canadian Milos Raonic win both of his matches as well.  We actually left part way through Nadals second match as he was winning easily and moved over to a small court where Roanic was playing another Spaniard.  Needless to say Raonic did not have much of the crowd with him.  By the third set Nadals match was over and the Raonic match moved to a tie breaker and there was not a seat left to watch, when we got there I don’t think there were even 50 of us watching.  It was very exciting, going to the 3^rd set tiebreaker, glad Raonic won, but we didn’t cheer too loudly.

 

Entrance to the Barcelona open

Center court

Nadal waiting to receive

Massive Canadian serve!

Preparing the court, they do this after every set

Preparing the court between matchs

On the way home we took another direction to go by the Royal Palace, which is now a museum.  Took a few pictures outside, then walked around the gardens a little, then were told we needed to leave as they close at 8PM.  

Gate to Royal Palace

Royal Palace

Caught the metro home, picked up a bottle of wine, this one cost 3Euro, I figure it is about 40% higher price here than in Javea, but I did get it at a premium tourist location.  Making plans now for dinner, so much to choose from, only requirement is I do not get us lost in the dark.    

Supper turned out to be amazing.  We ended up at a Vietnamese place that we found in the book in our apartment that was recommended.  This was a tiny restaurant, that maybe should have held 30 people but had 40 packed in, with a wait list on a board.  We lucked out and arrived just as 2 people were leaving the counter so we got to jump the line as no one else was outside and ate there.  Here they give you a sheet of paper with the menu on it and you just write down the quantity of everything you want.  First problem was we didn’t know anything on the menu except edamame beans which Wendy loves so we put down one of that.  The waitress came by and we just asked her to pick a bunch of good things for us as we aren’t familiar with the food.  How delicious, we had 3 different kinds of dumplings with pork, veggies that we dipped in different sauces.  We also had Peking duck, and the beans.  Everything is home made, they had a very tiny kitchen with 4 chefs working that you could watch right at the end of the counter.  This place was a gold mine, somewhere you would never go into if it wasn’t recommended.  When we left at 11PM there was still a wait list of 15 people and they had written at the end No Mas, no more being taken.  I only wish we had somewhere to eat like this in Moncton.

Vietnamese restaurant, wait list on chalk board

Here is part of the menu we got to choose from.....do you know what any of these things are.  We really are not sure what we got, but it was delicious

Our delicious supper

Outside Vietnamese restaurant