Barcelona

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Barcelona 2009

Day three saw us back on the tube on the way to the Arc de Triomf.  Barcelona has everything - the twin towers, the gherkin and the Arc de Triomf.  It is near a very nice, well kept park, with the city zoo at the other end.  We walked in the park and listened to the parakeets.

There is another side to Barcelona, as there is to any big city, I guess, but some are worse than others.

These are stones outside the geological museum, behind them you can see 'hidden' various items, such as blankets and card board boxes. There  is also quite a lot of begging, varying from the passive (sitting with a cup) to the over active (pleading that "I've had everything stolen and just need one euro to make a phone call" - it doesn't work when there are police everywhere).

Still it didn't spoil the trip.

I must now mention the Hard Rock Cafe.  In 2006 we ate in the Hard Rock Cafe in Cardiff. So it seemed appropriate to eat in the Hard Rock Cafe again - as Barcelona is Spain's equivalent of Cardiff - semi-autonomous and with its own language.  It was remarkable.  The 5 minutes wait for a table was 5 minutes.  The service through out was friendly, chatty and helpful.  The food was excellent.  There was real American coffee. The bill was charged in €uro's but a statement of the Ster£ing value was provided.  Just the best restaurant we had been in for our entire stay, and for a long time before that.  I left a tip, something that is rare for me, as I believe good service has already been paid for.

The journey home also had its interesting moments.  At the airport going through security checks they confiscated two of our three bottles of water, I found the other one when I arrived home.  The airport staff are so disinterested in their jobs it would be really easy to get things past them.  The airport shops are staffed with similarly disinterested people.  They see you arrive and get on with whatever they are doing - like talking to the other shop assistant.  I'd go somewhere else, but they are all the same.

The easy jet plane, when we finally got on it spent an age taxiing to the runway, then as it took off the engine noise was so loud I had to shout for Jo (in the next seat) to hear me.  It was still making strange noises when we got off at Stanstead - I was very pleased to leave that plane!

Liz had been waiting a while to pick us up so the parking cost was £10. Then we were diverted the wrong way up the M25 (our junction was partially closed for road works), so the trip home took a long time too.

Barcelona was lovely, and our few days very enjoyable.  There is lots to go back to when the exchange rate is better - until then it is just too expensive.

Barcelona

Day 2 and we decided to walk to the Park Güell.  It is probably the only place of note in Barcelona that the hotel is genuinely close to. It is surrounded by 'woodland' and tracing the roads on the map was an interesting experience.  We were walking through the 'back streets' not in the tourist areas.  It is a very different Barcelona, not nearly so clean - lots of graffiti and with frequent wafts of unpleasant odours (sewage?).

The park has many items of Antoni Gaudi's architecture, and is something that must not be missed, if you can get out of the city centre. Jo and I are standing at one of the gates to the park with Barcelona in the background. We 'swapped' pictures here with another couple, I hope theirs came out as well. The building to the left of my head is the Sagrada Família, another of Gaudi's famous works.  We wandered around the park for a long time looking at the various works.  Here all the tourist notices include English language translations, so we could understand them.  Here are some more pictures, but there are also some at the bottom of the page above, about the park. We went in Gaudi's House Museum, where the officials are very concerned about flash photography and we learnt that Gaudi was the first person to design ergonomic furniture - it looked really uncomfortable, but ergonomic furniture often is!

Gaudi, I believe is only famous because a lot of his work survives. He had a rich patron Eusebi Güell without whom it is likely he would have been a struggling artist - like so many others.  Personally, I find the work repulsive, but fascinating at the same time.

In Barcelona there are a number of tourist buses. Some are very expensive, none are cheap. The official bus Barcelona bus Touristic allows you to jump on and off as you please.  We bought a 2 day ticket, and set off on top of the bus to view the city.  There are two routes red and blue, and in the summer a third - green.  This way we get a sense of what's available and what we would like to visit.

Back in the Place de Catalunia we wandered down 'La Rambla', the long wide avenue that goes down to the sea.  It is very busy here - all the time.  However we found a restaurant with seats (that never seemed to be a problem) and settled down to eat and drink. A large beer is very large indeed.  The service was initially very good, but later slow and the bill was wrong, she seemed annoyed when I asked for all the meal to be included(!?).  The toilets there were somewhat unpleasant - smelly and inadequate - but that was preparing me for later.

Then back onto the Blue Route. It gets dark very quickly in Barcelona, from 5:15 to 5:50, from daylight to full night.  After that the bus is less useful.  It was also very blowey and cold on Mont Juic. On returning to the Place de Catalunia we found a fish restaurant slightly off the square, where again the food was very nice, and the service prompt until the end of the meal, when I had to ask another waiter for the bill.

Back to the hotel on the underground, for another good nights sleep.

Barcelona

We have been to Barcelona for the last few days.  Setting off in the early hours of Saturday Morning and returning last night.
I should make it clear to you that I hate travelling, but I enjoy being in other places and exploring them.  So arriving at Stanstead airport two hours before the 7 am EasyJet flight to Barcelona was just the start of a journey I was not looking forward to.  Stanstead was not too crowded at this time of year, and the staff there are pleasant and helpful - always making sure that you move swiftly to the next part of the process.  Getting up at 3am meant that tiredness took the edge off all that was going on.  The ridiculous security, the endless queueing, the long idle waits.  Finding something that I can eat in an airport shop meant Chicken Salad sandwiches before 6am.
The travel agent we had used had not mentioned baggage charges or on-line check-in, and it turned out that neither was required, but I would have like to have been told!  The flight was unremarkable.  Barcelona airport arrivals is poorly laid out with incorrect signage.  Not only did we have a very long walk, but part way through we were diverted to passport control.  The taxi system however is very efficient, and got us so the hotel swiftly.
We arrived at the Catalonia Rubens before mid-day, so there was a short wait while they confirmed our room was ready, and we were in and unpacking.  Having been told that 'everyone' in Barcelona speaks a little English, we tried a local cafe.  No English there at all, but we managed to order a cup of tea -  no milk, but not exactly English tea, it did require sugar  (plenty was provided) and was OK after that.  I tried to order a sandwich from the menu, but I think they were all past their sell-by date.  The woman behind the bar looked at each one, said 'terminal' and chucked it in the bin - so no sandwiches. We went back to the hotel for lunch, then out again to the Place de Catalunia - the Centre of Barcelona. The square is surrounded by plinths with various statues, Below is a woman on a horse, holding a ship above her head.

Then there are the bicycles, whole long rows of them.  you can hire them and drop them off at other points around the city.  The scheme is well used, and the bicycles look to be in good condition.  I did see one dumped though.

Our evening meal was Burger King.  We were tired after a LONG day, and needed to eat then sleep. 
Back at the hotel we had the best nights sleep for a long while.

More later ...