Beunos "Nachos" from Barca'

After catching the TGV back to Paris, the Metro to another train station, a train to the airport and a monorail to our terminal we finally boarded our plane to Barcelona. We left Paris pretty much overcast and threatening with rain as Tours had done for the last 3 days. When we arrived in Spain it was a completely different story. The weather was awesome. Sun shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky and a nice cool breeze coming in off the mediterranean to keep you cool.
Our first day in Barcelona was kinda wasted as we had to book a hotel that ended up being in what seemed like an industrial area and there wasn't anything to do out there. The Hotel Etap was pretty reasonable considering the Ibis was next door and they were owned by the same company, but definitely too far away from the centre. On our second day in Barca (as the locals affectionately call it) we headed to our hostel near La Rambla, called the Barcelona Mar, it was located in what used to be the city's Red Light District, and after a walk around a couple of streets at dusk I could see why. Our first night in town Barcelona was playing someone at football and every 2nd person at the hostel was wearing a Barcelona Shirt.
Much like Paris, Barcelona's Metro system is very good, although not quite as busy, and I strongly recommend purchasing a 10 trip ticket here as the sights here are quite spread out.
The following day we headed up La Rambla which was packed full of people by 9am and headed toward the Tourist Bus Tours. It seemed like every time we walked up La Rambla that there were different performers doing different things. Some of them were wore pretty full on costumes, like one guy who was dressed up as an angel but black not white. A few of them would perform magic tricks or juggle various things, others would just be human statues. One even had an elaborate elephant outfit to wear that made his statue effect even more effective.
It turned out that there were two tours that left from the same spot at the top of La Rambla that went in different directions (north and south funnily enough), they were however the same company so your ticket is valid on both. The first stop we made on one of the buses was La Sagrada Familia, an absolutely massive Temple started the 1880's and still unfinished. This building is an amazing piece of architecture and if it doesnt already look impressive now it will when its finally done. There isn't a single building like it anywhere else on the planet. The final spire, yet to be started will reach a whopping 170m high. On our second day in town we jumped on the 2nd bus and did the South Route which went around the harbour. We got off at the beach and stopped for lunch. After spending about 4 hours at the restuarant and the beach we got back on the bus and headed home.
On our final day in Barcelona, Tamsin and I got on what is called a Funicular (an underground cable car) and headed towards Mt Monjiuc to ride on the Gondola that went up the mountain. The gondola provided pretty spectacular views of the city including the Sagrada Familia and a building called the Torre Agbar which is shaped like a giant torpedo. After the gondola ride we walked around the outside of an old fort at the top of the mountain and looked out over the port towards the mediterranean. This walk was made more difficult than normal by the fact I had landed hard on my heel getting off my bunk the night before.
So all in all i thoroughly enjoyed my time in Barcelona and highly recommend a visit to anyone, although if you really value your sleep, go somewhere else.

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