Barcelona finally!

Well after a trying 30 hours and an unscheduled sleepover in London I finally made it to Barcelona.
First impressions were very hot so a refreshing cerveza and some tapas were required. I have no idea of the name of the place but the beer was cold and the tapas was good, even if they did forget to bring the patates brava (fried potatoes to you and me).

After some rest we decided to head to La Ramblas to check out some sights, even though the girls had been there already.
It was busy but good just like I remembered it although this time the thing of choice all the hawkers were trying to sell was some annoying noise making thing that sounded like a cross between mosquito and Donald Duck.
We made it halfway down and got to La Boqueria which is the big meat and fruit market, however my bad luck was holding out and it was closed on Sundays.
So we decided instead to catch the Metro to Parc Guell and check out the Gaudi designed buildings. After a quick trip on the Metro and a 20 minute constitutional we finally made it. The buildings are quite amazing and very intricate with tiled mosaics. Theres also a large area with seats also in tiled mosaics, it must've taken ages to build.


After looking around for a while we decided to cab it back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner. For dinner we wandered down the road from the hotel to a tapas place and I had a very nice black rice paella, quite unusual looking but thankfully not unusual tasting.


Again although the girls had already been to see the dancing fountains they indulged me so i could witness them too. The were quite spectacular and there was thousands of people there watching them as well. On the way back "home" we stopped in for another cerveza before bedtime.



The next day (today) we had to check out but got up early to walk to La Boqueria for only last attempt to see it before we left. For some reason it was closed again, we checked the sign which clearly said open 8am till 11pm but it wasn't.

Dejected we headed back to the hotel to check out and head to catch the train to Madrid.
Once again I must've killed a kitten because we got there about 2 minutes after they closed the ticket window. We figured a siesta but no apparently there was strike on and we managed to pick the day. The weren't opening the windows again till 3pm. We thought maybe one last crack at trying to see La Boqueria, so stowed our luggage and headed on the Metro to La Ramblas. We got there but it was still closed, so looks like I don't get to see it this time.



We caught the metro back to Placa Espanya to get something to eat and headed back to Sants Estacion picked up our bags and got on the train to Madrid.

We're currently doing 301km/h and it's 36 degrees outside this train is telling me, the scenery is very nice little villages and churches on the hills and some farms or similar growing fruit and vegetables of some description. Will update more once we get to Madrid.

- Luke

Location:Barcelona