February 21, 2012
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
At around 6 in the early evening I got on my bike and, on the way home, stopped at the swimming pool for my usual Tuesday night swim... ehm... no, no, actually I didn't do that. This week is not a usual week and today was not a usual Tuesday. Originally I had planned to have the entire day off, but I did go to the office in an attempt to clear away some work, but then, at 3 in the afternoon I walked out of the World Trade Center, to the adjacent Zuid train station and took a train to the Airport - only seven minutes away.
Months ago, back in the late summer of last year, my sister Joyce, who lives in Limburg, had mentioned that she had booked flights to Barcelona, Spain for a three day stay there, together with her son Beau - my nephew. Beau loves FC Barcelona, Barcelona's football club and one of the biggest football clubs in the world. I asked her if she would like a travel companion in Barcelona, given that I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the city, and she said yes. So I made sure that I booked tickets for the same flights, and today the long awaited day had finally arrived! We flew to Barcelona just before 6 in the evening on an easyJet flight that took just under two hours.
Upon arrival in Barcelona Airport El Prat we went to the train station (and saw a train depart while I was still struggling with the ticket machine) and took a train to Passeig de Gràcia station, and from there a connecting train to the magnificent França Station. Up until the moment that we got off the train at that station, all that Joyce and Beau had seen was a dark industrial area south of the city and then endless underground train tunnels. França was the first glimpse of BCN and they were both impressed with what they saw.
We went to our hotel first, just around the corner from the station and then went for some food in the nearby Magna Plaza shopping centre in the Port Vell (the old port.) What struck me most was how quiet everything was! Sure, it was 10 in the evening by now, but there really seemed to be no one around! I'm usually in Barcelona in summer or for the winter festive season so it could be that I never noticed before how quiet the city can get, but this seemed extreme. As we walked back to the hotel afterwards, I was keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow we would actually see some real people.
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