Barcelona

Here for just three days.

Thursday 1^st November continued …

We arrived at El Masnou, north east of the city of Barcelona and our base for the next three days, at around 2.30pm.  A strange, and rather expensive, site situated just off the main dual carriageway which runs alongside the railway line which runs parallel to the Mediterranean coastline.  Strange because it was narrow, steeply tiered, tree lined and had no designated pitches.  To access a pitch, or position, you had to drive over a kerb almost 1 foot high, no mean feat trying to get the caravan onto a space but nevertheless we managed it.  Swedes, Danes, Germans, French, all nationalities were here and many had children with them.  We recalled our trip to Andorra with Franz when he collected his daughter and realised it must be half term.

Once settled, we went for a walk along the coast path or promenade.  Although quite breezy the sun shone and the air was warm, a real treat after a cool few days in Andorra.

Friday 2^nd November

As we were here for just three nights, only breaking our journey to southern Spain, we decided to spend a day in the city itself and so set off early, taking the Metro, a 100 metre walk from the site.  In half an hour we were in the centre of Barcelona. Our Metro station brought us out at the top end of La Rambla where we quickly joined a queue at the Tourist Information Kiosk and acquired a map of the city. We joined the throng of people edging their way down La Rambla, reminiscent of our last trip to London one Christmas when we foolishly walked the length of Oxford Street, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others.  We hadn’t expected it to be this busy, not at this time of the year.

Hot and tired from pushing our way through the crowds we arrived at the Marina where we found a restaurant, sat in the sun and enjoyed a good meal.  We stayed there for a couple of hours before setting off round the Marina admiring the huge yachts and enjoying the freedom from the crowds.

As a city of renowned culture it was not surprising to come across some enjoyable street musicians.  We stood in the blazing sun and listened with great appreciation

We walked until around 9pm that evening, wandering the back streets and visiting Barcelona Cathedral with its Gothic architecture, its white geese and a great view from the roof. Gaudi's Sagrada Famlia was a must on our itinerary and was a fair walk from the centre taking us over an hour to get there.  When we finally arrived, about 5pm, we were astonished to find a queue that went right round the church and, on enquiring, were told it would take 3 to 4 hours to get in if we joined the queue now.  Tired already we agreed even Gaudi couldn’t command that much commitment. We made our way slowly back, again through the narrow medieval streets many of which were crowded with residents and tourists, at bars and restaurants, and found somewhere pleasant to sit, eat and rest our weary legs.

Much later we finally located our Metro station, the finding of which is a story far too embarrassing and long winded to publish here, at around 10pm and just managed to make the last train back. Hot, hungry and exhausted we were back at El Masnou by 11pm.

Saturday 3^rd November

Weary from our long and tiring jaunt into the city yesterday we decided on a quiet day.  Finding a Carrefour nearby we stocked up on provisions and returned back, put our feet up and watched the qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and later Dad’s Army.  I managed to get a good signal on the satellite dish here, probably the last time for a while now.  As we move further south my 80cm dish will not be able to pick up Freesat.  We will miss it, particularly the radio but hopefully should be able to pick up Radio 4 on the laptop with Wi-Fi and keep ourselves up to date with The Archers.  Tomorrow we make for Valencia.