Fiona in Tibidabo

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Fiona (that's her Second Life name) and I follow each other in Flickr, where I met her. We've never really hung out in SL and we conversed by leaving comments in each other's pictures in Flickr.

She later added me in LinkedIn and I gently rebuffed her (because I don't accept random invites in LinkedIn) until she told me her SL name. So I definitely had to accept!

As I was planning this trip, I asked if she wanted to meet and she agreed. She suggested Mount Tibidabo.

We meet at Cafe Zurich at Plaza Catalunya. I arrived earlier and got a seat inside, but I went outside again after noon, which was when we agreed to meet.

I had sent her a selfie earlier and I told her what I was wearing that day. I saw her crossing the flow of the crowd as I walked in front of the Metro entrance.

We went back in for a little snack, then off we went to catch the train. We got off at Ave Tibidabo and found the old wooden cable car (tram). Gaudi was run over by one of those. Hopefully, not the one we were on.

We mostly went uphill then stopped at a plateau where we bought tickets for the funicular train, which went even further up.

Tibidabo is actually a recreation park with children's rides. We got some tickets and rode the ferris wheel, then another ride (I don't know what it's called) that went much higher than the ferris wheel. Then we went inside the automata museum, which brought back memories to Fi, because she had gone there as a child but she hadn't for years.

We had a nice lunch at the cafeteria and we sat on a picnic table under the shade. And we talked and talked and talked.

Fi was very considerate about my achy legs, so we mostly sat and talked. We went down the mountain the same way, but we stopped by a cafe for ice tea after the tram. The ice tea lasted for 2-3 hrs while we talked more.

We took another train together, then we hugged and said our goodbyes when we arrived at the Plaza Catalunya station. She had to catch another train and I had to switch to the Metro.

I stopped by a falafel place on my way back to the pension. It was close to the tapas place I went to. The young lady, who looked like Cameron Diaz, didn't speak English much, but the young man did. Both were very friendly. The veggies were a bit stale, probably because it's already late in the day, but the falafel itself was very fresh and crunchy.