Hola Espana (Tuesday 23rd July 2013)

Today we traveled onwards to Spain, starting with two nighs in Barcelona. The journey was a quick one as Barcelona is only a couple of hours from Talairan. The border crossing was a non-event, I barely slowed the car down. The first toll-booth was a different story. The signage directing cars to lanes was not crystal clear and I wound up in a lane where I couldn't take a ticket. So I reversed out into the traffic and zoomed across a number of lanes to find one that did. At the exit toll-booth I managed to pick a lane that didn't tale cash and so found myself doing the same thing again. But we eventually got to Barcelona.

The GPS-girl and Emily got us to the hotel in the Eixample district but we all missed seeing. So we tried again, did a lap of some nearby streets (there are many one-way streets in Barcelona) and drove up the hotel's street. This time we saw it on a corner but had no where to park. So we drove on by. A quick look at the GPS showed a block that would take up back to the hotel via the other street. We took that and found the hotel's car park.

The Acta Antibes is a very nice two star hotel near the still unfinished Gaudi cathedral. We dropped our bags and set off to check out Barcelona. With the benefit of 23 years ago we walked in search of La Rambla, the heart of the city in the old section near the port

The day was very not so the shade offered by the trees along Barcelona's grand, wide streets was appreciated. Like all the other major cities we have visited Barcelona offers bikes for hire in the streets. Kerry has summoned up enough courage to have a go tomorrow as Barcelona is a very bike friendly city and the bikes and cars rarely mix. It's the pedestrians who are in the greatest danger!

We found La Rambla and strolled down it's length.

 

 It was full of tourists. We visited a fresh food market which was also busy but very colourful and exciting. Some fresh cool fruit went down very well.

Down at the port we noticed a cable car high above the water and thought that might afford a good view of the city from a different perspective. So we marched on to the starting point a kilometre or so away past the port full of sailing yachts and infrastructure for the 2013 FINA World Championships which are on right now. Unfortunately the swimming doesn't start until a couple of days after we leave. That would have been a blast!

The view was indeed great from high above the port and worth the trip and the wait in the heat. The endpoint has a terraced bar high on Barcelona's headland so we stopped there for drink and to take in the view. We strolled back down to the old town via the gardens and found a tapas bar for tea.

We had no idea what to do. The waiter, a gentleman of about my age we named Javier, was very helpful. He helped us choose a good selection of plates – all done through stilted pidgin-english, pidgin-spanish and  hand gestures. We had a selection of calamari, prawns, thinly sliced ham, potatoes, bread and a couple of others I can't remember. The quantity was huge and the quality was excellent all washed down with a huge glass of sangria. A very delightful meal. I was very happy to tip our waiter. Indeed I chased him down and interrupted his own dinner to do so,

Our table was conveniently 10 metres from the Sant Anna underground station so we went downstairs, brought our tickets and were soon home back in our neighborhood. We all agreed it is the best underground so far. Easy to use ticket machines, clean, efficient, bigger train carriages. We brought an ice cream and strolled back to the hotel.