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Paris to Barcelona – Friday 8th July
We have practised the walk to the airport bus at Montparnasse, so we make it in good time. We make one last stop at ‘The Smoking Dog’ for a takeaway croissant.
The bus comes and we get to Paris Orly airport without incident, and to Spain, Barcelona. We take the airport bus to Catalunya Square and a taxi to the hotel. It is early afternoon.
Our next challenge is to book the sleepers to Bilbao – I have had to call Spanish Railways every 3 days to confirm the booking, I have had to ask for someone who speaks English and I have no idea of the status of the booking.
It is an hours wait at Barcelona Sants station and we come away with a booking for €41 compared to the €75 quoted in London – just what have we got?
We return to Catalunya Square by metro – at least we have that under control, and take a 2½ hour city sightseeing tour. We are impressed by the Gaudi architecture and promise ourselves that that will be our focus tomorrow.
It is about 6:30 when we finish the tour and we walk through the shops. Bruce is surprised by the large crowd, but it reminds me of promenading in my Italian days.
As in Germany there seem to be many beggars, but they have babies rather than dogs. I also notice the huge gothic influence in the way the younger people dress, and they are very stylish with it.
The challenge now is to eat! We see lots of bars but not many restaurants. We see a lot of people drinking beer and SanGria but not eating.
As we walk down the Ramblas there are street performers and stalls selling pets and costume jewellery. The place is alive.
We find the market, it is twilight but the market is well lit, bright and colourful. What a photo opportunity.
We find Plaça Reial and have a meal at one of the many restaurants. Bruce scores with baby squid, I have a dried out paella – I’ve had better.
Street performers strut their stuff in front of the restaurants and then ask the diners for donations.
We are entertained by a group of English (Newcastle, actually) women of all shapes and sizes for Reena’s hen’s party. It is going to be a long night for them, and a tough morning-after. Later we see horned men – a buck’s party and glittered ladies – another hen’s party. Looks like packaged deals.
The outstanding thing about the hotel is their floral arrangements – worth a photo for Omi.
After returning to the hotel, we go out for a nightcap. Does Barcelona ever sleep? At last it is warm, after some very cool weather in Paris.
Barcelona – Saturday 9th July
After breakfast we pack up and leave our bags at the hotel. We want to explore Barcelona.
We have seen a house nearby of the Gaudi style, so we start there with some photos. We then move to ‘La Pedrera’ or La Casa Milà which is now a museum to Gaudi.
It is fantastic. The fourth floor shows some typical apartments. Curved walls, windows in every room, art deco furnishings.
The fifth floor is a museum showing how Gaudi went about designing his organic shapes, including the roof space in the Holy Family church. There are models and audio visual displays. The space itself is gothic with its arches of stone.
The roof is amazing, undulating with chimneys, air vents and stair wells which are beautifully decorated in harmony with the overall design. And like any good work – unfinished, some of the air vents do not have the tiled surfaces. Again, we take heaps of photos.
We walk to ‘La Sagrada Familia’, the church of the Sacred Family. I see enormous progress since I was last here with mum in 1972. Bruce, as with all of Gaudi’s work, is overwhelmed. More photos.
We take the metro back to town – really have that under control now, and navigate through the old part of town. We find what turns out to be the best tapas bar in our travels and share sausage, potato omelette and moussaka with beer and sangria.
Refreshed and revitalised – we hunt down the Picasso museum. It is set in 5 old buildings, each of them significant for their architecture. They range from 12th to 18th century and have been renovated over the years.
There is a good display of Picasso’s early work from age 14-16 (1895-1897), showing his early, brilliant artistic skills. There is also some work from his blue and pink periods and when he moved to cubism. There is nothing of his later work, but plenty that we would never see in Australia.
We feel truly museumed out so decide to head down to Barceloneta, the old fishing village, for dinner. Once again there are huge crowd on the promenade and it is warm and sunny.
We choose a busy place and order deep fried sardines and salad to share, on the advice of a young couple who had been beaten by the size of meals they had ordered. It is quite enough for us, but there are plenty who order the enormous sea food platters.
We chat to two Frenchmen sitting next to us … in German!
It is a mad dash from the metro to the hotel to collect out bags and then from the hotel by taxi to the station – we make it with 5 minutes to spare, and yes we have a cabin for two.
For all the difficulty getting to Bilbao, including booking the cabin and the last minute dash for the train we are travelling in style. The cabin is small and functional and includes a shower. Bruce celebrates by buying us beer and wine as a nightcap, so I sit on the top bunk and staple some souvenirs into my handwritten diary. We tour the train and find 8 seat cabins, 6 bunk cabins and rather congested sit up 1st class seats. It was worth the hassle of the booking.
Next page: Barcelona to Bilbao
