Sarah and Joe are now safely back in the states.  Sarah went up to Connecticut to work as a counselor and teacher at a summer program at Yale.  Joe saw his family in New York for a few days and then his parents in Alabama for a few more days.  Afterward he flew to Seattle to begin work at Microsoft.

We thank everyone for following along and asking us great questions.  Sorry for always referring to the blog in emails, but it was easier than repeating ourselves.

We learned a lot from this experience, and we hope you too could learn vicariously.  Most important, we've confirmed there is a much larger world out there and it's important to see it.

Keep in touch!

Sincerely,

J+S

Now that the trip is done, here's a few interesting facts:

Final Itinerary

As you can see, we deviated from our original plan slightly.  We added two cities to the mix, Frankfurt and Geneva, which we are generally happy with.

Number Countries: 8 (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland)

Number Cities: 15 (Besancon, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, and Geneva)

Number miles 3740 (Europe only, assuming straight-line paths)

Number trains: 13 (Besancon-Paris, Paris-Brussels, Brussels-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Hamburg, Hamburg-Berlin, Berlin-Prague, Milan-Venice, Venice-Florence, Florence-Rome, Madrid-Barcelona, Geneva-Besancon, Besancon-Paris).

Number planes: 3 (Prague - Milan Malpensa, Rome Ciampano - Madrid, Barcelona - Geneva)

Number Deviations: 2 (Cutting Amsterdam short to go to Frankfurt; Flying to Geneva from Barcelona)

Living Arrangements

Number Hostels: 9 (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Venice, Florence, Rome, Madrid)

Number Hotels: 6 (Besancon, Frankfurt, Milan, Barcelona, Geneva, Paris)

Number roommates: 30 (Paris x 8, Brussels x 0, Amsterdam x 2, Berlin x 4, Prague x 0, Venice x 5, Florence x 4+2, Rome x 3+2, Madrid x 0+2)

Good Hostels

You should be happy at these hostels.  We recommend them.

1. St. Christopher's (Paris)
2. Circus Berlin (Berlin)
3. Archi Rossi (Florence)
4. Albergue Juvenil (Madrid)

OK Hostels

You can fall asleep in these hostels, but they aren't anything special.

1. Hostel Jacques Brel (Brussels)
2. Ace Hostel (Prague)
3. Funny Place Hostel (Rome)

Bad Hostels

We'd recommend getting a hotel instead of going to these places.

1. Aroza Hostel (Amsterdam)
2. Stayokay (Amsterdam)
3. A Venice Fish (Venice)

Sightseeing

Number of steps we climbed: 3200 (Paris 700, Brussels 300, Amsterdam 0, Frankfurt 0, Hamburg 400, Berlin 400, Milan 0, Venice 0, Florence 400, Rome 700, Madrid 0, Barcelona 0, Geneva 300)

Number of churches we saw by name: 26 (Paris 2, Brussels 1, Amsterdam 1, Frankfurt 1, Hamburg 1, Berlin 4, Milan 1, Venice 1, Florence 1, Rome 10, Madrid 1, Barcelona 1, Geneva 1)

Downtime

Even with a jam-packed schedule, we still had hours to ourselves.  Whether it was on the train or late night before bed, we watched media on the laptop for relaxation.

Number of movies: 6 (PS I Love You, Charlie Wilson's War, Stripes, Hot Fuzz, SuperBad, Juno)

Sarah watched all but one disk of Gilmore Girls season 6.

Joe watched seasons 1 and 2 of the The Wire, and 4 episodes of MI-5 season 3.

Pictures

We took a few pictures on the trip.  Periodically (about every other day), we'd offload the pictures from our memory cards onto the computer.  Then about once a week we'd back up all the photos to the passport drive.  We used Live Photo Gallery and the nifty import tool to manage all the pictures.  We added tags from each city and each photographer so we could keep things straight.  Here are some nice stats:

Total Pictures: 6171 (17.5 GB, 4673 from Joe and 1477 from Sarah)

Here's a breakdown by city:

Blog

Thank you to those who faithfully followed along the travel blog.  This is likely the last post from us.  Here's some stats on the blog itself:

Number of posts: 33

Number of pictures: 250+ (including maps)

Number of visitors: 800 (times someone has come to read the blog)

Sincerely,

J+S

In this post we'll go over some differences we observed in our travels.

Things Europeans do well

Public transportation

It's almost cliche now to saw that Europeans have better public transportation than Americans do.  Every city we visited except Rome had public transport that could get us anywhere -- downtowns, train stations, airports, suburbs.  Not once during the entire trip did we need to rent a car, have a friend pick us up, or take a cab.  Outside of the northeast, can you imagine flying in to an average American city and relying on public transport to get to your downtown hotel?

In addition to the extensive network, European systems are better organized and labeled.  They're better organized because they rely on very simple rules.  First rule, one train per track.  You don't have to worry about getting on an express or local, a #3 instead of a #1 or #2.  When the next train arrives, you simply get on.

Second, they're better organized by using a radial pattern for the routes, like in Madrid where Plaza del Sol is the center.  This lets people get in and out of downtown directly and provides for a common transfer hub.

Third, they're better labeled because all tracks have the system map in plain display at each stop (this is not true in New York).  Also, directions are labeled by terminal station and list all upcoming stops.  You don't need to speak the language or know anything about the city to navigate the metros -- all you need is the stop name, and you can go from there.  In contrast in New York the subway direction is indicated by downtown or uptown, and none of the stops are labeled.  You have to know the city to get around in the metro, which is a little less tourist-friendly than the European equivalents.  Oh yeah, the European equivalents are clean.  We never saw a puddle of urine until we got on the NY Subway.

Train system

To complement the great intra-city transportation system, western Europe has very good inter-city trains.  These are high-speed, electric trains that you simply get on at the right time.  There is no security, usually no assigned seating, and in Germany nice outlets to plug your laptops in.  They're perfect for taking day trips to nearby communities or for leisure.  There is no hassle, and outside of Spain, they're always on time.

One comment on the seat assignment: we've noticed that trains and planes without seat assignments load and unload quicker.  This is because people have an incentive to get on fast in order to secure a seat.  While it's nice to know we would sit together with pre-assigned seats, we would just as easily prefer first-come, first-serve since it reduces the hassle.

Putting liquid measurements on menus and glasses

All restaurants in Europe are required (we think, since we saw this 100% of the time) to display in the menu the amount of liquid served in a beverage.  They then must pour the liquid in a glass with the measurement shown.  For example, if we order a coke, we would typically get a 40 centiliter glass (just one shot smaller than a water bottle).  On the menu it would say 40 cl (or 400 ml or 4 dl depending on country) and on the glass there would be a small -- but clearly visible -- line showing how high 40 centiliters are.  This seems like a minor thing, but in Europe where beverages are expense (and free water is unheard of), it really makes purchasing drinks straight-forward.  We can pick out the cheapest by-volume liquid without looking at prices.  Think of this, at a restaurant you order a glass of wine.  How much wine are you getting?  Is it 1/4 or 1/10 of the bottle?  We visited some places, notably in Geneva and Spain, where 10 centiliters of wine cost the same amount as entire liters of wine in France and Spain.

We think the measurements should be listed on American menus as well.

Metric system

It's just smarter and makes sense.  How many ounces in a gallon?  I don't remember, and nor should I have to.  What more to say?

It's not that expensive to change over, either.  We just have people afraid of change.  It's an education thing.  Once we take the leap we can better work with the rest of the world.

Speaking English

This is a sensitive subject because language is strongly tied to national identity and culture.  However, the simple truth is nearly every educated person in all of the countries we visited spoke English.  It was not necessary to know Italian in Italy, for example.  A good number of restaurants had English writing on menus separate English-only menus.

Why is this?

Just like the Euro is the common currency, English is the common language.  It's the lowest common denominator for everyone in the EU to do business with each other.  Take two countries, Spain and Germany, for example.  Since they're not geographically close, there's no historical reason for Germans to learn Spanish or Spaniards to learn German.  So the two communities generally cannot speak to each other.  However, both countries did teach their children English.  So that's what's used.  Joe predicts it will become the official working language of the EU (all meetings and business will be done in it without the need for translation) in two generations.

We actually think this is a wonderful development.  If you didn't already know, China and India are the two largest English-speaking countries.  Combined with English-speakers in America and Europe, we're approaching a de facto common, global language.  Language barriers aren't the problem they used to be.

Tax is included in the price

We got spoiled.  You walk in to a bakery and purchase a 1.50 croissant and a 2.30 eclair.  How much is the bill?  In the states I have no idea.  In Europe it's 1.50+2.30=3.80.  The only exception was in Barcelona, but it's clear they just do things differently as part of their identity crisis.

Tax should be required to be included in the price.  Sure it would "raise" menu prices, but we're already paying the tax, and it would make it easier for Americans to do business.  No more need for pennies, either.  In our entire trip in Europe we got at most 3 EU pennies.  How many do you get during the average day?

Things Americans do well

Credit card receipts

European receipts print your credit card number.  Not the "entire" number, but the important parts.  In the states the receipts show the last four digits for consumers to identify which card they used in the purchase.  In Europe they omit the first 4 and the last digit of the 16-digit number.  If you're curious why this is so stupid, it's because the numbers they keep in print are the important ones.  The first 4-6 digits on the card identify which bank issued the card, which is public knowledge and easily picked out by looking at the card itself.  You also could just guess.  The remaining digits are unique to the account, except the last digit which is a check-digit.  A check-digit is a number that's calculated based on the proceeding digits so that computers can check for errors while reading the magnetic strips.  This check-digit algorithm is also public knowledge and easy to do by hand.  So, while the European receipts don't print the number verbatim, they do print the "unique" information so that it's easy to reconstruct the entire card number from a found receipt.  Stupidity that's borderline criminal.

Restaurants

While we enjoyed eating out in the various countries, there often was too much risk in Europe.  In the states we have the benefit of chains that provide a guaranteed service offering, which forces independent restaurants to provide the same or better service.  There simply isn't much risk in eating out in the states.  In Europe there really aren't chains to force a lowest common denominator.  Plus, the tipping scheme we use causes waiters to be interested in their tables and constantly "table touch."  In Europe we almost always had to call the waiter for the check or any other issues.  We also never were asked "how's the meal" or if the waiter needed to bring more out.

Free Restrooms

In Europe it's customary to pay to use public facilities.  This is just stupid.  The facilities in Europe were no cleaner, and it often causes people just to urinate outside.  Using the restrooms is a human right; charging a fee is criminal.

Tips for traveling like we did

1. Leave the wallets at home, use a travel belt.  We put our passports, credit cards, and large amounts of money in ours.  We actually saw pickpockets in Madrid, and let's just say we never felt in danger of losing our valuable information.  There's no other safer way to travel.
2. Bring a laptop, you'll need one.  First, it's perfect to offload and organize pictures.  You don't have enough memory cards for a trip like this -- we took 17.5 GB of pictures.  Next, it's nice to have a keylogger-free computer for emailing and browsing.  We also installed MapPoint European Edition so we had offline maps of all the cities we visited.  Plus, it's nice to watch a movie or two.
   1. Bring two laptop batteries.  Plane rides and train rides are almost always long enough to kill a battery.  It's nice to have a spare so you're not left with a non-functioning computer.
   2. Charge whenever you can.  Even if you don't think you need to, charge.  You won't know when the next time will be.
   3. Bring a three-way splitter for electronics.  Most places you'll be lucky to find one outlet... make the most of it.  Along the same lines, you only need the cheap adapters in Europe.  The 50-cent ones that are glorified wires.
3. Pee whenever you can.  Even if you don't think you need to, pee.  You won't know when the next time will be.  This may be common sense, but in Europe you pay most places to use facilities. 
4. Have copies of all receipts for your journey.  We kept them all on the laptop and also stored them in Skydrive in case we lost the computer.  We then wrote all of the confirmation numbers in our hard-copy itinerary.  Luckily we didn't need any of them on the trip, but it was nice assurance when traveling.
   1. Make a hard-copy itinerary with all of the main plans in one place.  We had all of our hostel reservations, train times, flights, and even major attractions picked out before going.  We put them into one document, in chronological order, that we and our families could follow.  We had two hard-copies of the document with us, an electronic one on the computer, and another electronic one on Skydrive.  Make sure to include directions to hostels and train stations in the itinerary.
   2. Copy all of the directions onto a separate piece of paper.  We had all of the directions on our travel itinerary, and just before we arrived we copied them to scratch paper.  The purpose for this was twofold.  First, it caused us to read closely the directions and understand them.  Second, we put the itinerary away in its safe place and worked off of the scratch paper.  That way, as we were traveling the metros and walking through the streets, if the scratch paper got dirty or lost, we only were out a disposable copy of directions.  If we used the original itinerary, we would have been out a copy of our entire travel plans.
5. Blog instead of writing emails.  It's much more efficient than repeating yourself to multiple family members and friends.  We were pleasantly surprised with how well our family and friends accepted and kept up with the blog.  Thank you.  Plus, after the trip you have a good record for your memories.
   1. Blog using software offline like Live Writer since the internet is sporadic.  Live Writer, with Live Photo Gallery, really worked out well.  Also, working offline led us to produce higher-quality content since we could take our time or sleep on posts.
   2. It's easy to refer to the blog as well, and we even used it a few times to remember details while en route.
6. Bring an external hard drive like a Western Digital Passport to back up pictures and documents as you go.  Laptops can get stolen or hard drives fail, taking with it all of your offloaded pictures.  We kept copies of all the pictures we took in two places throughout the trip.  You want to pick one that doesn't require its own power source.  Also, we stored all of our media on the hard drive.
7. Bring media to watch on down time.  We had 100 movies and 10 television seasons to watch.  There is down time.  Sometimes you want to sleep.  Sometimes you can't and want to be entertained.

We hope that was useful.  The next, and final post, will be on our travel statistics.

Sincerely,

J+S

Well, we're nearing the end of our trip.  Just a few days from now we're flying out of Paris to Newark.  Before making it to Paris, we need to go back to Sarah's dorm in Besancon and help her pack.  We decided in Rome to change plans from taking the overnight train from Barcelona to Besancon and instead fly in to Geneva.  We did so for three for three reasons.

1. We didn't want to do an overnight train.  It just didn't sound like fun at all.  Looking at airports, Geneva is the closest to Besancon.
2. Overnight trains require a 70 EUR/person reservation from Spain to France.  The easyJet flight was 40  EUR/person and the hotel was 50 EUR/ person.  Plus, the train from Geneva to Besancon is entirely free.  For those keeping track, Geneva "cost" us 30 EUR/person for logistics.
3. We wanted to see Geneva.  We were willing to spend 30 EUR each for that privilege.

So we made the plunge.  We booked the flight and hotel online, and we made sure to stay close to the train station.

One notable difference is that Switzerland uses its own currency, the Swiss Franc, which are about 1:1 with the USD.  We liked the sound of that, thinking that prices would be cheap in Switzerland.  Instead, a 2 USD bottle of coke was 4 or 5 Franks, which is about in line with the 2-3 EUR it would have been elsewhere.  So, prices were stable with the EUR which meant that we were spending just as much money, only the nominal values hurt more with Francss.

At the airport we first went the ATM to get cash.  The woman in front of us somehow forgot to take her money, what we thought was 20 franks, so Joe ran after her.  He startled her, but she gladly took her 200 Franks she left in the machine.  We did our good deed for the day, but the sad part of the story is she thought we were European.  The woman clearly was from the south from her accent and said “God bless you.”   She clearly didn't recognize us as fellow Americans.  Oh well.

At the train station Sarah picked up the free transport tickets for us to get to downtown.  Yes, all arrivals get free transport tickets to get downtown for free.  Where else in the world do they do this?  Not anywhere we've seen.

Number one: St. George's church

After checking in to the hotel, we marched off to the first item on wikitravel: St. George's church.  It was a very lovely church, although we had seen many by this point.

Calvin's chair.

 

We went up the north tower to see Geneva.  Very lovely view.

These were steep steps: each one was about twice Joe's hand... in a spiral.... fun!

The soccer ball in the distance is where the famous fountain would blast up.  We happened to be in Geneva the same time as the Europe Cup Soccer tournament (a big deal, apparently).  There were signs in all of the businesses showing their support of the event.  For perspective, the restaurant owner in Rome was watching the tournament in the back.  While in Madrid, the bars advertised the games would be available.

We didn't get a chance to see a game though.  There weren't any playing while we were there, and even if there had been, we doubt we would have been able to get cheap tickets.

Number two: Central Perk

We walked through the old hilly Geneva to the two city parks.  The old Geneva is built on a hill and surrounded by a large brick wall, resembling a fortress.  While steep, it was cool scenery.  We walked past a restaurant that Bill Clinton ate at (his picture and signature were on the wall), but it was a bit too pricey for our tastes.  This the famous water spout when it goes off:

These are large chess and checker boards in the city park.

 

The central opera building.

Our goal in walking this way was to get to Central Perk, a coffee shop that pays homage to the television show Friends.  We read about it on wiki travel, and more important, we knew they had free wifi.

The coffee shop didn't look like the one on TV, and really wasn't remarkable at all.  There weren't pictures from the cast or even furniture place correctly.  It was just a coffee shop with couches.  Plus, the hot chocolate we ordered was basically warm milk and chocolate packets that we had to stir in ourselves.  The internet worked, though, so we were able to catch up on emails and blogging.

Number three: Bought chocolate at grocery store

We next went to a grocery store and bought a ridiculous amount of chocolate.  And by we, we mean Joe bought a ridiculous amount. Sarah bought a reasonable amount. Joe bought over 30 bars. The airport security in Paris even commented. But Swiss chocolate is good, right?  Why not take full advantage of it while it's cheap.

This item is here so we remember which grocery store we went to.

Number four: Ate at chicken place for dinner

That night we wanted a safe meal, so we picked Chez Ma Cousine  from wikitravel.  It is touted as a fantastic chicken restaurant that cooks chicken slowly for 60 minutes before serving.  Plus, it was right next to our hotel.

The food was pretty good, very reasonable, and we recommend eating there.  The only caveat is drinks are expensive.  Sarah bought a 3 Frank glass of wine that was 1 deciliter (10 centiliters)... in France and Italy you can almost get a liter for that.

Number five: Following morning we went to UN

This item is not listed on the map because it's relatively far to the north.  We took a bus there following the great directions we got at the train station.  In Geneva they have manned information centers that describe public transport.  Plus, hotels are required to give free day passes to all residents.  It's basically a hotel tax for public transport, but the system is very good.

The UN site is the old League of Nations headquarters that a rich man donated.  It's built in the 1930s style, similar in interior appearance as the Empire State Building.  Unlike the UN in New York, this building is attractive and worth preserving.  The tour isn't the most riveting experience, but it is pleasant.  We agreed it's interesting that we started our Europe trip off at the EU in Brussels and finished it at the UN in Geneva.  Both tours went the same... maybe it's social commentary of some kind, but we're not sure what it means.

One cool thing.  Some Koreans were trying to schedule a tour using their broken English.  The security guard asked them if they spoke French, they said no, and then he switched into Korean.  How many other people in the world do you know that speak English, French, German, and Korean?  (Those are the languages we saw... there may be more!).  Very cool.

On our tour a group of World Health Organization (we think) interns showed up.  Since they're working for a UN subsidiary, they could take the tour for free.  We think it was their first days on the job since a tour makes sense to do early.  This wouldn't be remarkable except the interns acted like they owned the place.  They talked loudly, often about inappropriate stuff, and peeked into doors without permission.  One topic in particular was "Why does the US always invade ugly places like Iraq and Afghanistan?  Why doesn't it invade a beautiful place like Geneva?"  Yes, they were Americans.  Likely pre-med looking for a resume booster.  We think they just finished their sophomore years given their maturity and appearance.

The interior grounds:

The interior of the building.

The original main assembly hall for the League of Nations.

 

The main assembly hall. Yes, they have wireless!

After finishing the tour, we took the bus to the train station and hopped on a free train to Besancon.  We liked Geneva, and we would love to return for the hiking.

Au Revoir,

J+S

We sadly only had a short day in Barcelona before flying to Geneva.  Part of the problem is we had to take such a late train from Madrid.  Usually we arrived in cities around noon, checked in, ate lunch, and then oriented.  In Barcelona we arrived around 5:00pm, which left us enough time for dinner and a little orienting.  The reason is, as we mentioned in the Madrid posts, that the trains in Spain tended to be late and sold out.  We simply couldn't get on an earlier train.  We really should be thankful we arrived the day we wanted to.

At the Barcelona train station, we thought it was funny the English for information read brief questions.

Number one: Sagrada Familia

Our hotel is right next to the St. Paul Hospital, which sits opposite of La Sagrada Familia on the diagonal mall.  This was a pretty good part of town, and we'd recommend the Best Western here.  The mall:

Anyway, we walked the mall towards La Sagrada Familia.  The church is an unfinished masterpiece of Gaudi that is worked on little by little as private funding comes in.  Different than the other churches we saw, we could pick out distinct styles sitting next to each other.  Also, we hadn't seen the tree decoration style before.  You can see that not all stained glass windows have been installed.

We arrived at about 7:45, the church closed at 8:00, and we didn't feel like going into yet another church in Europe.  So, we took pictures of the outside and explored the area.  Just across the street of the church was a park where many older gentlemen played bocce ball.

We then ate at a touristy Italian restaurant in order to have a "safe" meal. We ordered a pitcher of white sangria, which is made with white wine instead of red, and Sarah thought it was even more delicious than its red counterpart.

Number two: La Playa

The following day we headed off to the beach.  Playa means beach in Spanish and isn't the name of the particular beach we visited.  We just took what looked like the closest metro stop and walked until we saw no more buildings.  On the metro train itself Sarah ran into a classmate from UNL who was studying in Barcelona.  They chatted briefly as the girl did not want to lose her group.  Sarah thought it was so bizarre to see someone from Nebraska halfway across the world. We then walked out of the metro... away from the water... go towards the large buildings, not away, when going to the beach in Barcelona. Apparently they’ve found it conducive to construct large buildings right on the water and don’t mind the obstruction of the view. Joe mused how much ruckus causes in Florida.

In short, the beach was fun!

The water in the Mediterranean is very cold, so we didn't see too many people swimming around like you see in Florida or even California.  We walked up and down the beach to get a better feel for it and then picked a quiet spot for our hotel towel. Yes, we did sneak a hotel towel to the beach. We’re classy like that.

Sarah layed in the sun while Joe started a sand castle.  Sarah saw how cool the sand castle was and decided it needed two amazing moats.  We worked on the castle for a while, hoping that the tide would come in to try out the moats.  However, we remembered that the Med Sea has a crazy tide schedule (it's not regular like it is on other coasts).  And we didn’t get to see Sarah’s handiwork stand up to the ferocious tides.

Number three: Asian food

We went to a fast food wok place for lunch.  It's remarkable because of how cheap it was, and because we picked it because Sarah saw someone eating out of a Chinese box.  Inside the fast food place they had a little mart where they sold random items you would need in a beach-front condo: ketchup, ice cream, cookie dough, beer, and tourist souvenirs.

In particular you can see the very American pancakes and maple syrup.

No picture of the joint, but we liked it.

Number four: Back at the Hotel

After the beach we went back to the hotel to shower off.  However, we arrived in the middle of planned maintenance of the water system... which meant no water for two hours.  We knew that construction was going to happen because of signs in the elevator, but we forgot to plan for it since we didn't expect to arrive at just the wrong time.

So we passed the time, while still sandy, by watching the movie Hot Fuzz.  We highly recommend the movie and thank Dan from Microsoft (an intern) who last year recommended and passed the file off to us.

Number five: Park Guell

After we took showers, we headed off to the famous park built by Gaudi.  It's at the top of the small mountain.  The streets are so steep the city installed escalators for tourists.  Have you ever seen escalators outdoors before? We hadn’t.

 

Inside the park we saw many joggers circling the mountainous paths.  It's mostly a scenic walk amongst trees with the frequent view out over the city.  A very cool experience.

 

In the middle of the park is a central observation platform that people use to play soccer, sit, and see the whole city.  You can see the La Sagrada Familia construction site, a couple other interesting buildings, and out to the beach we were just at.

 

Sarah called these buildings ginger bread houses.

 

In the park Sarah randomly saw a fellow student from her study abroad program.  The girl and her family were taking a cruise through the Mediterranean and had stopped in Barcelona for the day.  We saw what seemed like many other cruise ship people in the park as well, which suggests this was one of the recommended stops.

Number six: La Rambla

After the park, we took the metro down to an area Sarah heard about called Las Ramblas.  The hotel receptionist knew only of the street called La Rambla, so we're pretty sure we went to the right area.

La Rambla is a divided road with shops and restaurants on the outside and benches and kiosks in the median.  There were many people here.

We looked for a restaurant, and picked at first a touristy place.  We sat down, and Sarah quickly went to the bathroom.  The waiter came to clear away her setting when Joe told the waiter, in Spanish, that there were two people.  Sarah returned the table, but the waiter did not for ten minutes.  While looking at the menu we both felt the place was overpriced.  The meals were reasonable, but the drinks were atrocious.  The table Asians next to us, for example, didn't order any drinks with their meal.  By the time the waiter finally returned, we tried to order chicken dishes.  They told us they were out of chicken, so we left.  Afterward we both agreed at the relief of not having to eat there.  The wait, the price, and even the food weren't that appealing.

Next up on the strip we found a place called "The Attic."  The attendant at the door simply handed us a menu.  She didn't try to sell us or push, like so many of the other restaurants in Europe do.  We saw what we liked, the price was reasonable, so we went up.  For the same price as the first place, we got a much better experience.  The restaurant tried for a 4- or 5-star ambiance with the correct lighting, tablecloths, and place settings.  We ordered the third cheapest bottle of wine (which was actually reasonable at 15 EUR), a Petit Caus from Catalan region.  It was very good, and they even put the wine on a chill stand by the table.  Joe got the chicken dish and Sarah got a lamb dish.  We then each had dessert after seeing the table next to us order a delicious-looking mouse.  The only "complaint" was the table full of American sailors (privateers, not military) talking loudly and cursing every five minutes.  It was entertaining in a way though.

The night worked out and we enjoyed our time on La Rambla.  We headed back and turned in for our flight to Geneva.

Adios,

J+S

Coda

In Barcelona they speak Catalan as the primary language -- thanks Asaf for the warning -- but everyone also speaks English or Spanish.  While we were learning to use the phone card, Joe spoke Spanish to the Orange dealer for a walk-through.  English by far was the least prevalent and least understood in this city.

Also in Barcelona, tax was not included in restaurant prices.  We don't know why, but we think this is one of the few regions in Europe still like this.