Barcelona - Day 1 (a little late)

We've been in Barcelona for 2 full days now, but we've been busy! So busy that there hasn't been time to get any writing done. My apologies. Here's a quick recap. The flight from Chicago to Munich was quite comfortable in the [almost] lie-flat seats of Lufthansa Business Class. Darlene slept for 4 hours and I got one hour (I was working on my novel). We sat in the lounge in Munich and had a Coke and got on our flight to Barcelona that was then delayed while they took luggage off the plane (its owner was not onboard).It was a quiet flight to Barcelona and once we landed and got out luggage, we had to exchange Dollars for Euros, and then find the bus into downtown (a very easy thing to do).
The end of the bus line was Placa de Catalunya, one of the most popular spots in Barcelona. Once Darlene helped me get my bearings (thanks to my one-hour sleep), we walked to our hotel on La Rambla -- the popular walkway down to the harbor. Five minutes later, the phone in our room rang -- it was seven thirty, and that was when John and Sharon (friends from the 21-day Rick Steves' Best of Europe Tour in 2009) were going to meet us here for tapas and vino. They had arrived five days earlier, and so they had already scouted out the area. We washed our faces and headed down to the lobby, and met our friends and off we went -- tapas and vino it was. Bienvenidos a Barcelona!
After dinner we walked down La Rambla some more and had a HUGE sangria. It tasted absolutely great!
It was hard to believe that it was only 10 PM in Barcelona, and we'd been going for only about 26 hours. But it still seemed like a very long day because we'd been up for hours before our first flight. Then it was something about about being in Barcelona, strolling along La Rambla, having dinner with friends, and that sangria -- we were suddenly re-energized. The sangria was calling, and it was a huge glass, so we had to get drinking!
Finally, all four of us had dutifully emptied our glasses, and we managed to get up out of our chairs, and start back up La Rambla; John and Sharon to their apartment, and we to Hotel Continental Barcelona at La Rambla 138. It was getting near midnight, and our bodies were ready to finally give out. Up the flights of stairs to room 247 and into bed, hard mattress and all. Good night!