We decided to take the on off bus today to just drive around the city and see a couple of stops. We spent a couple of hours at try Barcelona Cathedral. Something that people probably do not know about me is that even though I am not religious, I have a collection of rosaries. I decided to buy one today as well. I think that I probably have over 30 rosaries. I am not exactly sure how i got so many but I like them. During university a friend of mine was religious and she would ask me to pray with her and I would. We would go through the rosary. I am not sure why but it was important to her so I did it with her. To this day I still like rosaries and I purchased one that is contained within a small jar so I can keep it with me. There are 2 routes on the bus that take 2 hours each. We did the full loop on one getting off a couple of times but unfortunately we did not complete the other loop that would take us home as it stops running at 7pm. It would have been difficult to do both but we had no agenda and it did not matter. As many of you are aware, my boys are both half Asian. Xavier struggled mightily if we go too long without eating Asian. He prefers the fresher flavours and he requested Asian for dinner which made us unable to take the bus back to our hotel. As we are in a non tourist area a lot of things were closed today and we ate ramen at a place recommended by someone at the hospital. It was delicious, the broth that Mel and Xavier had were very different but both were quite exquisite. Mel had a chicken collagen broth while Xavier had a spicy miso that has hints of lemongrass. Xavier is also now the cleanup eater. He finished my mini bowl and added my rice to his broth and then finished what Mel had left over. 30 minutes after eating he said he could eat again and he was hungry. We ended up getting some cookies from this bakery I found. I have not tried it as of yet. There is a cheesecake from this one place that everyone says too need to try. It is unlike any other cheesecake I have had and there was a lengthy line we had to wait for. It was worth the wait but I am not sure if I would go back and stand in line for. I am not sure if I found a dish that I would fly back for yet. Every coffee we have had here has been amazing. They know how to make coffee here far better than in North America.
We had several meals today ranging in price and even went to a Michelin guide restaurant. At the Michilen restaurant, the kids requested asparagus, we also had pasta in a butter lemon sauce with anchovies and caviar, beef tongue, fish carpaccio, a red prawn rice dish, cuttlefish, and she croquettes. Meals for 5 ranged from 11 euros upwards of 200 euros and the cheap meals were just as good as the expensive ones. We spent the day eating some amazing food and we managed to be out and about for 22 hours today. My energy levels throughout the day seemed to be fine, but it is clear that i need the wheelchair. Within the cathedral I had to go a period without it going upstairs and moving about. It was clear that the whole process exhausted me greatly and I had to take breaks. I ended up taking some energy chews. While I can move around and do things, the energy depletion is quite real and I need to increase my caloric intake before I can stop relying on the wheelchair. I kept my steps below 2000 while Olivier had over 15,000. Xavier has his numbers skewed because he was pushing the wheelchair for most of the day and it impacts his arm swings. By the end of the day as the temperatures dropped, we realized that I had a problem. My hands get very cold with my thin gloves and they seize up painfully and I can not move them. We knew that this can occur, but thought it would be ok here. It is not. We have some contingency plans for tomorrow and luckily i have hand warmers in my jacket pocket. I had difficulty getting them out so I had my sister help me out. We will try and find either gloves or a blanket for tomorrow to help out with this.
We will end up going for another day of site seeing prior to my surgery on Wednesday. The agenda for tomorrow is shopping and grabbing some souvenirs. The day for the most part will be unplanned with 1 set reservation for the afternoon. My photos suck so I will have Mel post her photos afterwards. I am stuck in the wheelchair and they do not always have me face a good direction. Olivier did not bring the GoPro but I might bring it to capture him. It is not as easy as he thought I think.
Q