We arrived to a warm, cloudy Barcelona and, much to our surprise, successfully negotiated the Airport shuttle into the city. We were very proud of our achievement and then the city started to fight back!
Our hotel is fairly central, about a mile back form the beach and walking distance to most of the Gaudi masterpieces. More about our hotel later…. we’ve stayed in better, the debate is whether we’ve stayed in worse!
A late breakfast fortified us in Cafe Emma and then we were off to the Aquarium. Matt looked at everything on offer in Barcelona and chose the aquarium! We walked through Las Ramblas while holding tightly to our belongings. tales of pickpockets ringing in our ears and then the rain started. The decision was made, we would definitely go and visit some fish!
The marina is a vibrant area with a shopping centre, plenty of restaurants and lots of big expensive boats.
The aquarium was warm and dry and kept us entertained for a couple of hours. Matthew learned that fish come in different colours(!) and Kim learned how to tell the difference between a male and female shark.
The sun had appeared when we left so we headed for the beach and walked along the front before taking the cable car back across the harbour to Montjuic.
Three very weary Brays ended up back in Emma’s Cafe for dinner before adjourning to The English Tavern to watch the football. We were the only English in there and gave up when Man City went 2-0 down. The highlight for Matt was table football and beating Kim 2-0.
Now on to the hotel which appears to be tucked into a couple of floors of a serviced apartment block. We found reception on the second floor which is simply a man behind a desk. Our room is big enough for three beds but not if you want to walk between then or have more than one of us taking up floor space at any one time. And then there is the smell of cigarettes, a real reminder that smoking is still seen as more acceptable in large parts of Europe. We were tired and forgave the room these issues until we woken by the guys next door coming back. It must be tissue paper for walls, they weren’t being noisy but it was like they were in the room with us. Either a new hotel or new room for us, we think.
According to Kim’s phone, we walked 10 miles. John is disbelieving but Kim trusts Apple implicitly.
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