Blogs from Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 6

On the road again heading for Spain. The weather has been awesome so far, hot and dry. Today we will be lunching in the medieval city of Carcassonne, before reaching Barcelona. We have noticed on our trails, how many jets are flying all over the place. There are vapour trails all over the sky. The further south we go, the more fruit trees there are and lush country side. Lots of Chateaus and villas surrounded by trees. The roads over here are brilliant. Smooth wide and mostly motorway. Leaves our roads for dead. The bus is comfortable and quiet, double glazed, reclining seats, curtains etc, very modern. 11am already 28 cel. The castle and fortifications at Carcassonne are definitely worth a look. Highlight for Warren. 2pm 33 cel, hot but no humidity. We got our first ... read more

Up at sparrows apart this morning. On tour again..... Wake up call at 0600, 0602, and 0604. Finally hung up the phone to kill the wake up calls. Then alarm goes off at 0620 so up and at em...... Today we have an early start to go to Monteresso, a rocky outcrop about 30 km out of Barcelona. Nice drive out of town and into the hills. Lots of normal tour guide stuff about the countryside, etc. but then we hit the hills. Winding roads with sheer drop offs out my window, luckily I trust our driver. Get to the top and park the bus with not too many around. Tour guide is happy. Wander up to the cathedral and check it out. Very impressive with lots of gold dressing around the church. Wander out and ... read more

Today Greg and I took the hop on hop off bus so that we could see more of the city sights like Jardins de Miramar (great views of the city and harbour from up here), Olympic games venue, National Museum of Catian (what a wonderful building), Placea d Espanya (which is Barcelona old bullfighting ring that is now a shopping centre and museum) and for all the soccer fans out there the home of FC Barcelona. This evening we meet up with Vanessa and Marc from Melbourne who have been following us around some of the places in Europe that we have explored, was great to swap travel stories.... read more

Wake up and finalise packing. Make a call to the lady of the house to ask if we can stay till 1200. No problems. This is good, as our train doesn't leave till 1610. Read the news of the Nice terror attacks and feel sad for the people of Nice having spent 3 days there only 3 weeks ago. Worked out where the carnage took place and we really didn't spend much time at that end of town, but hey, a bit close for comfort. Packed the bags and slowly got ourselves on the road at 1130. We still had a few bus trips on the tourist card we had bought so decided to catch the bus to the beach cafes that we passed each day on our way in or out of town. Good decision ... read more

Yes, the trip back to Barcelona was a back track of our trip north 8 days ago but as this country is so changeable this trip was still interesting. It is great to see all the agriculture active, the small country towns and as you get close to Barcelona all the industrial areas. This evening we meet up with one of Rose’s Spanish cousin for a late dinner (9.30pm), drinks and chat. So good to get to hear about life in Spain from a local.... read more