Seniors in Spain 2018: 7/12/2018-Pamplona-Running of the bulls, Cathedral of Santa Maria, train to Barcelona, Hotel CHI, dinner at CRUIX

RUNNING OF THE BULLS. It is very early but we have to be at the balcony by 6:45 AM. Plan is to meet Dorie there at 6:30 AM. I am dressed in black capri pants, white T shirt, and my red San Fermin scarf around my neck. Exiting our hotel we find the street full of people-some still partying/drinking from the evening before. The streets are full of trash. Icky. We arrive at our balcony early. Address is #8 Mercaderes. We have reserved 5 spaces on the 2nd level balcony. This was booked on 3/23/18. Cost $628.45. Our balcony will not only give us a view of the bulls running down Mercaderes but we can also see them turn on to Estafeta. This is called "dead man's curve." Also waiting here is a guy-Bruce. Dorie, Blue, and Ronan have arrived. They are dressed for this spectacle in red and white. The barricades are up. The first inner row is for medical personnel just in case. We see police, emergency aid workers, an ambulance.

San Fermin clothes

Neck scarf I bought

Scene outside our hotel at 6:15 AM

Walking to our balcony

Barricade is up

At 6:45 AM Cheryl the owner lets us in. In a cute sitting room Cheryl has a table set up with coffee, water bottles, muffins, pastries, cookies, candy. Ronan asks if he can have hot chocolate and Cheryl gets it for him. Very nice of her to do that. The coffee is so good. And the food tastes great too even though it's so early.

Lots of goodies for breakfast

Cheryl is on the left telling us to help ourselves

Cheryl and Blue having a discussion

Dorie and another bull balcony person

Ronan is happy with his hot chocolate

Dorie's anticipation is growing

Ronan is ready to capture the action on his I Pad

Out on the balcony there will be the 5 of us and 4 others. It's not crowded. We can see the runners lining up and doing some warm ups. Jumping up and down, pumping their legs. Then we see our friends right in front of us-Ricky and Victor! Too cool. Anticipation building for the running of the bulls. The gun or something goes off 8:00 AM and we see a surge of runners. Then a lot of very big bulls. More runners. Some steers. More runners. The entire part that we see lasts around 2 minutes. It's over so fast! Dorie is laughing. We can't believe that it really only lasted those few minutes. Ronan had his I Pad and taped the entire thing. He had fun. We all did. We have to leave now-8:05 AM-as Cheryl is taking some of the people over to the bull ring for the encierros. That's when the runners and the bulls enter the bull ring. That spectacle lasts until 8:50 AM. Back down on the street we see medical workers loading a guy into the ambulance. Hope he's going to be ok. Hope Victor, Ricky, and the others are ok too.

Runners getting ready

Police lining up

Now the runners are lined up behind the police and emergency workers in the first row behind the barricade

I think these are officials talking to police

In the raised stands are reporters, officials I believe and in the distance behind them is a street cleaner

There are so many runners that they are moving up the line

Others on balconies like us

Ricky and Victor stop by to wave at us across from our balcony

Here they come!

The bulls are way bigger than I expected them to be!

#Run as fast as you can

These are the steers that are let loose after the bulls

The steers are not as dangerous as the bulls

Balcony doors closed as they have left to go to the encierros

Workers taking down the barricade which will go up again for tomorrow

We decided to walk over to where Dorie's hotel is located. We past the Cathedral which isn't open yet. There's a viewpoint where we can see the old city walls, mountains-the Pyrenees. We stop at Dorie's hotel. It's very nice. Sitting at a table we have to book tickets for some sights in Barcelona. For 7/17/18 we book tickets for Parc Guell in the morning and Sagrada Family in the early evening as that's the only time left. They intend to arrive Barcelona 7/13/18 and will leave evening 7/17/18. They want to spend Ronan's birthday 7/18/18 at Portavenura Amusement/Water Park. We plan to do a day trip to Montserrat on 7/16/18. We have to figure out when we'll go to the Picasso Museum. I will ask our hotel in Barcelona to print out the Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia tickets for us. We part ways as they are driving to Zaragoza before they arrive in Barcelona.

Dorie's hotel is Hotel Pamplona Catedral and is near the Cathedral of Santa Maria

Walking the streets

Leaving behind the crowds

Can see the Cathedral

Cathedral of Santa Maria

Museum of Navarre

Church of San Fermin de Aldapa 18th c.

Old city walls

View of the Pyrenees

Old city walls and parking area

Old city walls

Heading back towards our hotel we see that the Cathedral is open so we decide to stop. Cathedral of Santa Maria. Built 14th and 15th c. Neoclassical facade. Gothic. Inside is the tomb of King Carlos III and his wife Leonor. It's quiet and peaceful inside. Quite different from the noise and chaos of the running of the bulls earlier. I buy another T shirt-10€. A poster of this year's San Fermin festival-3€. Luckily I brought a mailing tube with me for the poster.

Cathedral of Santa Maria

Check out is fine and the receptionist helps us take our luggage down the street to where the taxis are located. So very nice of her. We are able to get taxi quickly and off we go to the train station. Goodbye Pamplona! Cost of taxi 8.55€ which I round up to 9€. While waiting at the train station I manage with my limited Spanish to buy us our train tickets for Barcelona to Valencia on 7/20/18. Cost $112.06. Our train departs 3:08 PM from Platform 7. It is scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 7:03 PM. We have to take an elevator down and walk across a short way and then go up to get to our platform. Train is on time. Our seats are in coach 6-6A and 6B. I booked these tickets with www.loco2.com on 4/9/18. Cost $74.11. Tip: It's better to book train tickets early as the price will be lower. These seats are very comfy but we are so tired! It has been a super long day.

Pamplona taxis are white

Pamplona-Iruna train station

Train station

Our train leaves from platform 7 at 3:08 PM

The 2 winning posters for San Fermin 2018

Train ticket Pamplona to Barcelona

This monitor inside the train shows your journey

We arrive in Barcelona around 7:20 pm. Capital of Catalunya. Founded as a Roman city. Transport

hub-Port of Barcelona. Hosted 1992 summer Olympics. Football/soccer FC Barcelona. Barri Gothic-

center of the old city, Ramblas. Modernisme. Gaudi. Louis Domenech. 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We walk to the taxi area. The taxis here are black and yellow. In Pamplona they were white.

We have arrived Barcelona-Sants train station

Our train

Barcelona-Sants train station

Barcelona taxis are black and yellow

Got to our hotel CHI about 7:45 PM. Cost of the taxi?? Check in. The reception area has an area with seating, a computer/desk area, some vending machines for drinks and snacks. Room 304. Nice. Twin beds. Shower with a large vanity area. Desk, chair. Small Juliette terrace overlooking Gran Via de les corts Catalanes in the Eixample area. We will spend 8 nights here from 7/12-7/20/18. Cost $1217.06.

Our hotel is on this main street in Eixample area

Hotel CHI

We are in room 304

Comfy beds

Bathroom-shower

Bathroom-large vanity

Desk and flat screen TV

We have a small terrace with a nice view

View from our terrace looking down to the Gran Via de les corts Catalanes

We are too tired to venture far for dinner. Per recommendation from hotel staff/reception we walk to CRUIX. The place is full but we are told we can wait at the bar as a table should be opening up soon. We order drinks-beer for Richard, coke for me. Then we have a dish of the most amazing olives. These olives will be the best of any on our trip. Soon we have our table. We will share items. Marinated tomato salad, broccoli tandoori, duck croquettes Pekin style, and a rice dish-prawns, roasted peppers, and garlic. Richard orders Angelet's anchovy home cured for himself. Dessert-curryous which is coconut ice cream with green curry, mango and spices. Then complimentary shots of lime/lemon drink with Mexican pepper. All was delicious!! Cost €46.20.