Barelona to Toulousse

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Completing our Transatlantic journey in Barcelona, we left the ship at 9am and we were a little frustrated to have to wait nearly two hours in a line for a taxi into the city. We made it just in time to drop our suitcases at our hotel and race across the square to where our 11am walking tour was about to commence. We had booked with Runner Bean Tours before leaving Australia and were pleased with our Old City Tour, which over the two and a half hours gave us a good orientation of the historic part of the city near where we were staying.

Returning to our hotel we were thrilled to find our room had a terrace directly across the street from the rooftop of the famous Gaudi designed home with wonderful chimneys. As our hotel was located near the Ramblas, a street filled with cafes and restaurants we didn’t have to walk far to enjoy the local cuisine, sangria and beers. On our second day in Barcelona we took another walking tour this time to view Gaudi’s work, the tour utilized the metro to cover a lot of territory and concluded at the Gaudi Cathederal, Sagrada Familia. As we had booked tickets online to enter the cathedral we were able to bypass the queues of people waiting up to two hours. We were both amazed at the interior of the large cathedral, it was breathtaking. The ceiling was supported by columns that were meant to look like a forest of tress and the stained glass windows were beautiful. The interior was flooded with natural light and was very serene. We had purchased tickets to go up one of the towers, a lift took us up to the top where we were able to walk across a bridge to see the ongoing construction up close before descending around 400 stairs.

The next morning we took a taxi to the station to catch a bus to Andorra. It took just over three hours to wind our way up through the scenic mountains to reach Andorra, another country to add to Ron’s list. We arrived in the town of Andorra La Villa late afternoon in time to enjoy dinner at a local restaurant. We took another bus the next day around lunchtime to travel the three and a half hours to Toulouse in France. The journey was again very picturesque except for the hour or so we spent in the clouds travelling through the mountains.

We had been lucky at both Andorra and Toulouse to be able to wheel our cases the kilometer or so it was to our hotels. Arriving in Toulouse we felt as if the heat had been turned off, we had brilliant weather for all six weeks of our trip but Toulouse was raining and cold. After checking into our hotel we found a lovely little French bistro for dinner. The waiter was very friendly and did his best to understand our accents, the food was delicious and the service wonderful. The following day was spent exploring the streets of Toulouse before taking the airport bus to catch our next flight to London. We of course could have taken a flight from Barelona when we finished our cruise straight to London but by travelling overland to Toulouse we managed to tick off Ron's 100th country by travelling through Andorra.

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