Arrived in Barcelona bright and early.  We sat at the airport for a little while to exchange our HOHO confirmation for tickets (needlessly).  From there we hit the RENFE and onto the metro to get to our hotel (Hostal BCN Port).  It was pretty easy to find and in as good of a location as I had hoped - very close to Colum (Christopher Columbus statue where we could pick up the HOHO), near the Paral*lel metro stop, and a reasonably short walk over to Las Ramblas.  The room was small, as expected, but it's way nicer than I'd expect from a hostal and clean - that's the key part.  Would I stay there again, yes!

They allowed us to leave our bags even though it was so early and we couldn't check in so we then headed out, a bit tired, but not as bad as the last time I visited.  I did eventually pull out the 5 hour energy type drinks for us to get through the first day and get on their schedule (6 hours difference).

As mentioned, the HOHO stop was close so we jumped on the red line there and headed for the green line, the one we didn't even run on the last time I visited.  From there we stopped at Par Diagonal Mar, which had some unique stuff, but it wasn't much of a motivation for taking the green line (in hind sight).  Now, the next stop, Cementiri del Poblenou was pretty nifty.  Yes, I like cemeteries, I love seeing the really old graves and taking in how well cared for they are even today by remaining family members.  It was a cool stop.  From there, back to the red line and heading towards the Barri Gotic.

We wandered there a bit aimlessly, peeking at the cathedral that we planned to attend services at on Sunday before getting on the ship, seeing the old roman wall still partially there, and walked across to Las Ramblas, eating at a little place on the way there which was quite disappointing.  We strolled up Las Ramblas to Placa Catalunya where both the red and blue lines stop and jumped on the blue.  We were scheduled to go into La Sagrada Familia at 4, and this got us there around 3:20ish.  We walked the outside again, like I did a few years ago (without hunting for a photo card *laugh*) and then headed in.  The entry fee is a bit steep, but it was pretty impressive inside and I know my fee is really a donation to keep the building going.  I'm very happy to have gotten to go inside on this one!  From there we jumped back on the blue line, riding it the whole way around just taking things in.  Dani crapped out somewhere along the way, giving me fond memories of snapping photos of Doug and Kirk passing out on the blue line 2 1/2 years ago :)  We came the whole way back around to Catalunya and then walked back down Las Ramblas and to the side roads to get back to the hotel, stopping long enough for a quick gellato.

She wiped out, I showered (I think it was the best feeling shower of my lifetime) and by 8 we were in for the night.  No English TV stations, so I had an interesting time watching a game show and reading a bit of one of my magazines before wiping out myself.