July 5, 2015 Drive to Martorell - Hotel Ciutat Martorell

Well the hotel got pretty noisey early this morning with all the soccer players getting ready to head out to their games.  Elaine and Fred's room was right in the middle of it all.  Roger and I at least were down the hall.  So we decided to get back on the road and head towards Barcelona.  We had emailed the person who we are renting the apartment from but we never got a response.

 I can't believe how many castles we passed by.

 These mountains looked fake even as we got closer to them. 

When we pulled over at a service area we were able to get on the free wifi and I used booking.com to get a hotel for 34 Euros by paying for it in advance.  We were very happy with what we got.  The Hotel Ciutat in Martorell is a wonderful 4 star hotel. The staff went out of their way to be helpful.  I would have loved to go to Montserrat but by the time we were settled in and they had given me the information about how to get there it was already 4:00 so I guess I will have to do it next year for my birthday.

 There was plenty of storage for a longer stay.

 The room was very clean and comfortable.

In the room they had a comb, toothbrush with toothpaste, razaor with cream, shower cap and a buffing sponge.  The parking would have cost 11 euros but because we booked through booking.com the parking was free.  Since it was Sunday everything was pretty much closed.  Elaine had done some research on places to eat only to find out that they were all closed also.

We weren't sure if we were on another wild goose chase to find the restaurant.  To Europeans anything under two miles is very close.  But when you don't know exactly were you are going it always seems further on your way to it than on your way back.

Luckily the person at the front desk recommended Taps & Tapas.  Even though Elaine got more than her share of the taps as the waiter knocked over Freds beer on her. Our dinner was good.

Dessert was good too.  It said chocolate fondant cake and Bailey's ice-cream.  What it really was was a chocolate melting cake with chocolate ganache and there was ice-cream but I don't think it was Bailey's.

It was amazing to see all the people both young and old that come out and just sit on the benches and talk to their friends.  It was a lovely evening for doing just that.