Gayle and I decided to skip the Bus Turistic and walk back from Parc Güell to our Hotel near the Plaça de Catalunya. It was a pleasant walk down a pretty tree-lined street in the Gràcia neighbourhood. The only odd thing was early in our walk where we encountered a heavy black-clad police presence and enough "secure" Paddy wagons at the ready to handle a fairly significant protest. Maybe it was early, as the only hint of that we saw were some "Occupy"-related protesters on the main street just down the hill from the Parc.
It was now early in the evening and security precautions gave way to couples and families enjoying some free time out on a warm October evening. We walked hand-in-hand, talked, laughed and agreed that this was one part of our Spain Vacation that we enjoyed a lot. Another part was having a chance to talk to the locals (in the broken language of choice) as they went about their normal business.
And so it was as we entered this Vinalium, looking for a nice bottle of white wine to share later. The young guy at the Counter was friendly, knew his wine, and had a recent vinticulture-related trip to Nueva York to add to the conversation. We made a nice selection, but hearing his descriptions of regions, nose, acidity, etc. was more than half the fun. We talked a bit about California wine, our Spain wine experience to date (Liébana, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Txakoli, etc.), and how reasonable wine pricing was here (in both restaurants and stores). It was one of those short random moments that sometimes shine a special light on an already wonderful vacation adventure. read more