Raffaellesco - Bill and Suzette's Sailing Adventure

 11/23/24 Barcelona, Spain Today is our 29 th wedding anniversary! 29 years with my partner in crime, my ever-ready sailor and best friend. We live a great life, made even better because we are together. I have wanted to find a great rooftop bar/restaurant to take in the city from above, so we headed out in the afternoon for the Royal Hotel, 83.3 Terrace Restaurant. This put us back in the shopping district and a stop in the Mont Blanc Store. Suzette loves her Mont Blanc pen, but she left it on the boat. We picked out a new pen for her and left it to be engraved. The attendant gave us a lot of history on Mont Blanc, this is their 100 th anniversary for their classic pen, which is what we bought. They served us champagne while we learned about all things Mont Blanc. The 83.3 Terrace had a fabulous view of the city, and, unlike many of the rooftop bars I looked into, it was enclosed in glass. It was a cool breezy day, but comfortable and beautiful at the bar. We enjoyed cockt...

 11/18/19 Barcelona, Spain Moving day. With a 1000 checkout and a 1500 check in we decided to overlap the apartments for a day and not have to wonder the streets burdened with our luggage. We spent the morning repacking and cleaning up the apartment. We had a recommendation from a friend to go to Bar Canete for a meal. It turns out it was two blocks from our apartment. It looked like a little hole in the wall place, but so was Los Gatos and it was awesome. We arrived at 1300, opening time, and found a long line starting to file in. Evidently this is a very popular place. I am not one to stand in line for a restaurant, but the line was moving well. As we got to the front of the line, we could see that people had reservations. Talking to people in line they said that the earliest reservation they found was two weeks out. The maitre’d stood the people in front of us aside with no reservation, he stood us aside and then stood one more non reservation couple aside. After that he was...

 11/11/24 Madrid, Spain A very lazy start to the day, I think we are a bit worn out after two days of walking. We rallied at 1100 and headed NW to the Market San Miguel, a very cool market selling fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, wine and beer. You could buy premade dishes or take your purchases home with you. The building was steel from the era of the Eifel tower, very beautifully restored. The Market Inspiring Plenty of tourists! From the deep Next, we walked to the Puerta Del Sol, a go to spot for gathering in a large public square according to the internet. Rick Steves calls it the Time Square of Spain, but we thought that the Puerta De Mayor was more inviting as a public square. We moved on to the Galleria Canalejas, a beautiful galleria of high-end shops in a beautiful old building. A quick look to take in the interior art and architecture of the place and we were out. The Galeria Quite opulent Hhhhmmm? We walked west to the Royal Palace of Madrid, a beautiful palace pos...