Further update on Day 2

I was the first person to arrive at breakfast this morning when I showed up at about 7:30. The breakfast buffet was excellent and had incredible variety. Some of my favorites were the dense, non-greasy croissants, small crispy-skinned pork sausages, and tortilla española. I also had a delicious buche de noel (although in this case it was a New Year's log) and a surprisingly airy glazed donut. 

After breakfast I took a nap to try to counter the effects on my sleeping schedule of waking up at 3:00. After napping, I walked around l'Eixample, the district near my hotel, for about two hours. It was drizzling but not too cold. The streets in this neighborhood are pretty uniform: beautiful stone and cast-iron apartments with shops and farmacias underneath. I walked to la Sagrada Familia, one of Barcelona's most famous monuments and Gaudi's masterpiece, but was a little underwhelmed. The cathedral is amazing but it was obscured by scaffolding--maybe they're doing renovations? It had already fallen dark by that time and the building was not at all lit up. I knew I was in a tourist area by the nearby McDonalds and Starbucks.

After Sagrada Familia, I walked back down Carrer de Mallorca toward Passeig de Gràcia, one of the busier streets. There are still lots of Christmas lights up, and most places had garland-like lights strung across between the two sides of the street. 

The streets nearest to my hotel had this square-and-triangle design, which was probably the least interesting one but still cool.

Passeig de Gràcia had these pretty snowflakes.

I also saw some really nice lights decorating Hotel Majestic. 

An example of curvy Modernista architecture on Passeig de Gràcia, although a little hard to see in this picture. (*Update: This is Casa Batllo, another Gaudi.)

The pretty painted side of Catalonia Berna. My hotel room is the second window from the left on the second floor.