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Published: January 25th 2011
Monday 10th January to Sunday 16th January 2011.
Monday 10th January 2011
Barcelona.
Tom set the alarm for 6am with good intentions –rolled over and stuff the good intentions so up at 8am and then into town by train.
Went to tourist office for maps, books etc - booked tickets to the football, Barcelona play Malaga on Sunday 16th, then over to travel agency and booked 3 days in Majorca in hotel and then went to Correos to post the mail. Walked around town and then to the big market place Hopped onto train back to campsite. On the train, Tom had been standing for a while, when a young lady went to sit down but then offered the seat to Tom, which he declined. On the way off the train he asked her if she spoke English – she said ‘a little’. He told her he must be getting/looking old as that is the first time ever he had been offered a seat and laughed as we alighted. So this is the 2nd ‘old thing’ on this trip – 1st a seniors discount at a campsite and now the 2nd one he is offered a seat – don’t LOL
11.1.2011 - Barcelona
Face sculpture at waterfronttoo much.
Tuesday 11th January 2011.
Tom on trainer 1.5 hours – getting there.
This campsite is very expensive to stay at €28 a night and also for a load of washing €7. But it is the only campsite opened near the city and next to the railway line. The cycleway is next to the railway line and the beaches and a marinas are next to that. The other campsites in the city area are only open in summer.
Into town after lunch for the Picasso guided walking tour – very informative and interesting.
Wednesday 12th January 2011.
Alarm went off at 5am to collect Megan from airport – forgot to reset it for tomorrow (another blonde moment) . So up an hour earlier than expected and packed up motorhome and set off at 8am to motorhome dealer for service and repairs up at a place called Vic.
A long drive of 70km which was up and into the mountains. There was thick fog – so off at the correct exit and up and down to look for MHD. Ended up asking 1 person and then another and found it in the fog. After some discussion, they
14.1.2011 - Barcelona Mila House
Known as 'La Pedrera'. a Gaudi design which broke the mould of architecture design - pity it was closed for renovations, would loved to have gone inside-next time we come here. then got a lady who could speak good English. We told her what we had booked it in for and what we wanted done. We sat down in reception area and set up our computer as we knew we had to wait quite a while. As the fog had cleared by 11am, we looked across to the mountains. Yep, we could see snow – it was cold outside. At 1.20pm they came and said they were stopping for lunch and would re-open at 3.30pm, so they parked the van out the front for us and we had our lunch and Tom had a nap.
Back into the MHD and set up again in reception. We stayed there until 7.30pm. All done and €500. So off back to the campsite for a late dinner and bed as we had an early start tomorrow.
Thursday 12th January 2011.
We were up at 5am and on the train at 6.12am and off to the airport to pick up Megs. Much crying, hugging and laughing. Off home to settle her in. Did not take long. Tom and Megs on walk at 1pm to get groceries and she sees a VW beetle and thumps
14.1.2011 - Barcelona
Tom and Megan on city tour bus his shoulder and says ‘Punch buggie-no returns’ – something she and Sharmayne have done since they were little kids. Tom went for a bike ride while Gaye and Megs did their best to make Meg’s gear fit in to the motorhome. Gaye then cooked a great stir-fry with rice for Megs as she was craving some home cooked meal. So tired we all went to bed at 8pm.
Friday 13th January 2011.
Up and into Barcelona for the bus tour of the city. Had plans to go on red bus route – got on the bus and found it to be the blue route. So stayed on until it intercepted with the red bus. We had lunch and Megs and Gaye went shopping and Tom sat in the sun and watched the traffic on the roundabout with 8 roads intercepting. Better than any choreography Tom has seen so far in his life.
Then onto red bus around town until the Museum of National Art of Catalunya (MNAC) (this was once the Montjuic National Palace which in 1934 was converted into the seat of the Art Museum) we hopped off and had a look around. The building style inside was
15.1.2011 - Barcelona
Park Guell - Tom and Gaye Moorish – lots of colours. Back onto bus and home by 9.30 for dinner.
Saturday 14th January 2011.
We planned an early start at the Temple of the Sagrada Familia – designed by Gaudi. It was free entry today so off we go for a 9.30am arrival to beat the crowd. That did not work as there was thousands already queued up there – so on to bus and off to Park Guell.
The Park Guell design was commissioned to Gaudi. The initial plan was to build an English-style garden city with 60 one-family houses. In the end, only two of these were built, with Gaudi living in one of them for 20 years. His house is now a museum containing furniture designed by him as well as some of his personal effects. We went into the Gaudi Museum – the furniture is quite different but not sure how comfortable it would be to sit on-so asked the staff and they said it was comfortable – so Tom asked them if they had tried them, but they said they were not allowed !!.
Walked some more. There were a few good buskers in the garden. We bought 2 CD’s.
15.1.2011 - Barcelona
Park Guell - Megan with busker There were not many people there, it was a beautiful day –not cold. We walked around, bought some jewellery and then as we walked on – all the hawkers all started packing up and running. We watched as the police came and surveyed the area where they had been. The hawkers waited until the police had gone and then they came back and set up again but very warily.
Then down to the tour bus stop to go to La Foxiadle - a road tunnel that has been turned into a climbing wall by the locals and council. It was right next to the Olympic Park. Megs’ loved it what with all the male bodies – very muscular and taut. Gaye was enjoying the scenery as well.
Tom tried a bit of climbing on the lower lugs, but had no gear with him for climbing but had some fun. When we were walking there and asking for directions, we asked what was on tonight at the stadium in the Olympic Park – it was the snow boarding championships – we tried for tickets but there were none left. So back onto bus into town and walked up through the backstreets
to station. Megs and Gaye did some shopping and Tom watched the crowd go by.
On train at 7.30pm (about 3 hours later than planned). Dinner and bed.
Sunday 16th January 2011
Lazy morning. After lunch we went into town and left the luggage at the main railway station – had a long chat with security guard in the luggage section - he was from Argentina and had been to Australia.
We caught another train to the football stadium metro and followed the crowd to the stadium. Eventually found our way to get the tickets and find the seats. They have the seats numbers in even and odd blocks eg the left side of the isle is odd numbers and the right side is even numbered seats.
The match was Barcalona (Barca) vs Malaga. There were 75,500 spectators. Quite an atmosphere. It was a one sided game as Malaga were no match for Barca.
What was interesting was when Barca scored or did anything remotely good, everyone cheered and jumped up. When Malaga did the same, there was stunned silence. We could not believe their attitude. Tom commented about this to an English fellow in the campsite who lives
there permanently and he explained that the Spanish have a saying that explains their behavior – it is ‘not even water for the enemy!’
So after the match we go to the railway station to collect our luggage but the luggage office is closed. So we thought we would have to stay there all night until it opened. But they close up the whole area – so we tried to talk to one of the cleaners. A young girl was there who spoke English and she explained it to him. He called the security officer to open up the locker room to collect our luggage. We then caught a taxi to the airport.
That was where we spent the night – at the airport. It is now about 1.30am. Tom and Megan slept on the floor at the airport along with lots of others having to catch an early flight. We did this as the first train that ran from the campsite would not have made it to the airport in time for our flight. Gaye didn’t sleep as usual – so she listened to the Ipod and sat on a chair in the waiting area.
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