¡Adios, España!

Is the last day of vacation a total bummer for everyone? For me, it's like the Sunday blues on steroids, especially when I'm staring down the barrel of long travel home and work right around the corner. On our last full day in Spain, we woke up to gray skies and drizzling rain, which also didn't improve our moods. However, we sucked it up and tried to make the most of...

Day 9

 Barcelona -- Madrid, Spain

Highlights: Olympic Museum

Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics (the original Dream Team, anyone?), so we made plans to explore the sports facilities in our last few hours in town. Most of the Olympic stadiums, arenas, fields, etc. were built atop Montjuïc, so we took the metro to the base of the hill and rode the funicular to the top. From the station, it was a short walk to the Barcelona Olympic Museum.

For Olympics buffs, this place was an absolute hidden treasure. In addition to memorabilia from the 1992 Games (including the bow and arrow used to light the Olympic cauldron in the Opening Ceremony), the museum also had individual exhibits on the history and evolution of each sport, Olympic and otherwise. There was an impressive display of Olympic torches and an interactive video center where you could watch select clips from every televised Olympics up to 2008. Heaven.

Near the end of the museum, there was an activity center where you could test your reaction time, climb a rock wall, and compete in other physical activities. As you can imagine, Wheat had fun with that. Once we'd had our fill of the museum, we wandered over to the Olympic Stadium to see the Olympic cauldron itself.

Despite the rain, we decided to walk down from Montjuïc and admire the views along the way. At the bottom of the hill, we encountered Las Arenas, a massive former bullfighting ring turned shopping center in 2000. Fun fact: Catalonia (including Barcelona) banned bullfights in 2012, so many of these structures have been converted into concert venues, malls, etc. We killed a couple hours by wandering around the mall, eating lunch, and admiring the expansive 360º views from the rooftop, which is now filled with restaurants and bars. Oh, and we also had our last European gelato of the trip.

By this time, we had to get to the train station, so we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags. We lugged them through the rain to the metro, then through the metro to the train station. A few hours later, we arrived in Madrid, where we took a cab to our hotel near the airport (Hotel Tach) and found the most delicious gyros and feta fries for dinner. The next morning, we rode the convenient hotel bus to the airport and just like that, our glorious Spanish adventure was over.

If you missed out on any of the fun, here are some links:

Madrid: 1, 2, 3

Toledo: 1

Barcelona: 1, 2, 3, 4

OR...since YouTube is much easier than reading, check out this awesome recap video that Wheat made of our trip. I married up, folks.