Not much done today apart from washing, ironing and re-packing ready to head off down to Poole tomorrow. We ventured down to Stalybridge after the last load of washing was on the line so that Bernie could have the No. 2 comb run over his head and chin again. That should keep him looking neat and tidy until we arrive home?! We took Kath and Albert out to dinner at Bowerfield Spice, their local Indian restaurant. We enjoyed a very nice meal before walking back up the road for a last game of cards. After a dreadful run of luck in [View Full Entry]

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Because we are not travelling until this afternoon we decided to sleep in a bit (more than usual!) and go down for a later breakfast. This proved to be a bad idea as the dining room was ridiculously busy at 9.30am! We had to wait for a table for the first time and then queue up for our food!! The front desk told us that we could checkout late at noon so we thought that we could take our time to pack our bags after breakfast. Unfortunately the cleaning staff were not at all keen on the idea of us having [View Full Entry]

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Oh dear, I am in trouble today. After being a bit grumpy for the last day or so Bernie has finally revealed that he really, REALLY wanted to go to Port Aventura while we were here. I didn’t realize it was on our ‘must do’ list, more something that we might do. I thought that we came to Spain to enjoy the sun and have a really relaxing time just lazing about, but Bernie thought that if there is an adventure park handy that we should visit that too. I must say, though, that I had been a bit shocked to [View Full Entry]

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Pretty much more of the same today! We read by the pool this morning and then went up to our room for a light lunch before returning to the pool for a bit more lazing about!! About 4.00pm we finally hauled ourselves off the sunbeds and went for walk along the sea front. We walked past all of the tacky tourist shops and bars on the way out and returned along the beach. It was quite blowy down on the beach this afternoon with a bit of sand whipping about. Not nice for laying on the beach, but at the water’s [View Full Entry]

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Oh dear, it was a bit overcast and drizzly this morning so we took the bus into Tarragona to check out the shopping centre. We had decided earlier in the week that if we had a bad weather day that we could have a look at the shops. Unfortunately it is not a very big shopping centre - more Endeavour Hills than Chadstone - so it didn’t fill in quite as much time as we would have liked?! And we certainly weren’t tempted to buy anything with the price of most things about the same or slightly more expensive than at [View Full Entry]

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After two big days of sightseeing we had another lazy day today. This morning we read our books down beside the pool. We went around to the No. 1 pool which is much nicer and very quiet. There are three accommodation blocks here at the Estival Park and each block has its own pool area. All guests are allowed to use any of the pools so we have been over to Block 1’s pool a couple of times. Mind you, I was reading my book when a bird flew over and dropped a bomb! Somehow it managed to drop it right [View Full Entry]

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We had an early start this morning as Bernie wanted to go back to La Sagrada Familia (yes, again!) to photograph the Nativity Façade in the early morning light before the tour busses arrived. Yet another tip that he picked up in our guide to Barcelona! We were there and back to the hotel within an hour. Even at this early hour of the day there are trains running about every three to four minutes so it is really quick and easy to travel around the city. After showering we packed our overnight bag, settled our bill and arranged storage for [View Full Entry]

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Well, we didn’t fall asleep on the train trip up to Barcelona this morning … and that would be because we had to stand all the way. Sort of like catching the train from Warragul to Melbourne and not being able to get a seat!! I was footsore before we even arrived in Barcelona for our day of sightseeing! From the RENFE station at Passeig de Gracia we switched to the Metro to catch a train to the hotel we booked in the Barri Gotic district. We found Line 4 (yellow) without any trouble and two stops saw us coming out [View Full Entry]

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Bernie finally spoke to someone at the Commonwealth Bank this morning who could shed some light on why both our credit cards were refused when we tried to use them in Barcelona yesterday afternoon. For some reason it took three phone calls before someone could admit to us that the Commonwealth Bank’s computers were down for a day and a half playing havoc with customer’s credit card transactions the world over!! At least they haven’t cancelled or suspended our cards on us and, fortunately, we had enough Euros on us to pay cash. Otherwise it was another lazy day today! This [View Full Entry]

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Well, we just managed to fit in a trip to Barcelona during our first week in Spain! We were up early this morning and hit the dining room right on opening time at 8.00am so that we could grab a pastry and a piece of fruit to eat on our way to the bus stop. We caught the local bus into Tarragona and then walked from the bus station to the train station to catch the train into Barcelona. Even though the train line runs beside the sea for most of the trip we both snoozed on an off for most [View Full Entry]

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