Barcelona - here we come!

(We have also added photos to a couple previous entries. The one entitled ´Venice then to Rome´ - we have added a lot of pictures from Rome. ´We May Never Leave´we have added more pictures of Cinque Terre. )

Friday morning arrived bright and early. We were both up by 4:30am and to the train station by 5:35am for our 6:00am train. Before too long, we realized our train was delayed by 15 minutes. No worries. Then 20 minutes. 30 minutes. 40 minutes. 50 minutes. Hmm. At this point we realize we are going to miss our second train and never get to the third one. Sherrie heads off to figure things out and comes back with the news that we are now on the 11:00am train and we will arrive in Barcelona at 9:45pm. Great we will get there, but at this point, 6:45am, I am wondering why I got up so early. But it all worked out in the end. I slept for about an hour on the floor of the train station and then we put our bags in a locker. Fortunately, the delay meant that we got to go to the fruit and vegetables market.

After a long (confusing) day of travel, we ended up in Barcelona. We were unsure whether we could get on our last train but it all worked out. For a while on the train Sherrie did not have a seat but she did not seem bothered by this. We met up with Kerry and Bev who had already checked in to our hotel room. I had heard that people in this country don´t sleep - and I believe it now. We headed to get a bit to eat around 11:00pm that night. There were people everywhere. At 1:00am there were more people on the streets than you could imagine. It is quite the city - a crazy nightlife!

On Saturday, we went on a ´Hop-On, Hop-Off´bus tour. It was great! We got to see a lot of the city. We got off at the Olympic Stadium and were surprised at how small it seems. We then hopped back on the tour bus and headed for the beach. It was beautiful. We first had ice cream (which always seems vital in this heat) and went to the water. In Barcelona, it is important to use common sense so we could not all swim at once. Someone had to stay with our stuff. Following the swim, we headed out for tapas. Tapas are individual servings of different foods. They were fabulous. We had a potato dish, different meat ones, cheese and salad. At first we only ordered nine dishes but quickly ordered more. It was a great meal. That night the four of us went out to a pub. It was a lot of fun and the night went by very quickly. Before you knew it, we realized that we were becoming those people who were up way too late. It was a great time and we met people from New York, Holland and a lively group from England.

Today we slept in and had a rather late start. We hopped back on our ´Hop-On, Hop-Off´bus and toured a different part of the city. We focused our attention on Gaudi and the church he designed. Around 8:00pm, we went to the train station with Kerry and Bev to see them off. They were heading on a hotel (overnight) train to Milan, Italy. It was sad to see them go. Everyone had a lot of fun together this weekend.

Tomorrow we are spending most of the day on the train. We will end up almost on the most southern point of Spain. We have edited our plans and are no longer going to Lisbon, Portugal, instead we are heading to another continent, Morocco - Africa for a day-trip. We are both very excited about the trip.
Not sure when we will be able to access internet again. It may be a few days before you hear from us. On Saturday, we fly out of Portugal to Ireland! I am really looking forward to the drop in temperature.

Time is flying by! Steph and Sherrie

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