Barcelona

Tuesday 24th February 2004

5.30am - Wake up! 11.10am - Flight EZY6401, NCL-BCN, 35,000 ft, 500mph We're currently flying over some clouds somewhere in France. Mr Scruff is enjoying his first flight but wants to look out of the window at the little people. The cabin crew (the Scottish bloke) is mad and is providing the comedy alternative to the announcements. Looking through the guide book it seems we have no idea where the hotel is. The purchase of a map is needed!

11.45am - First Officers announcement tells us the temperature in Barcelona is +9oC with light cloud. We're starting our decent and should arrive ahead of schedule!

#"Sometimes I feel like I'm in Barcelona"...

With the help of our newly purchased (German edition) map, we managed to successfully find our way to our hotel, Hotel Oasis. The hotel is nice and handy for the metro but our room is tiny! There's only one very small window in the whole room so not much light gets in. Never mind, I'm sure we'll survive. It does however have the world's smallest bath! Time for a quick shower before heading out into Barcelona for a wander down the famous "Ramblas" and have a drink (or 2!)

8.55pm - We've just got back from our evening of exploring the Ramblas. Decided to be tourists this evening and had dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe. It seems the Spanish don't go out to eat till late so the restaurants don't open till around 20:30. Very tired now so it's time to go to bed, there's an early morning in store and lots of sightseeing!

Wednesday 25th February

Woke up at 9.00am after our 12 hour sleep! The hotel isn't too quiet, you can hear everything, for example, the man next door likes to sing in the shower! :o) The hotel served breakfast till 10.00am so we decide to have a late breakfast. We arrive in the breakfast room to find there isn't much left though. After a bread bun each, we head off to see Barcelona.

First stop was "La Sagrada Familia" the famous gothic cathedral built by Gaudi. I was surprised to find out that although the cathedral was started in 1882 it was never finished. They're currently working on finishing it now thought. We took a trip up one of the towers. The views were really good but the weather was grey, rainy and horrible so the views were limited. It cost 2 Euros to go up the tower so I reckon I've paid for about a cm3 of a brick! The walk down the tower was a bit scary though, the stairs were very narrow.

Back on the ground the weather was still horrible so we decided an indoor pursuit was required. We set off in search of a coffee shop to plan our next adventure and so that Dan could have his caffeine fix which he never got due to the disaster with the breakfast! Unable to find a coffee shop or an indoor pursuit we headed off in the direction of the Ramblas.

After lunch we went for a wander round the old town, "Barri Gottic". We visited the old cathedral and according to tradition, we lit a candle inside. The old cathedral was cool as it had a little courtyard garden inside with palm trees, plants, ponds, fountains and geese! The days seem much longer cos after everything we've done today it was only about 3.00pm.

Tonight we've decided to put our faith in the guide book and have a chosen one of the recommended restaurants, "La Fonda". The guide book said it didn't open till 8.30pm but was very popular and didn't accept reservations so we decide to arrive early and find a huge queue waiting to get in! It was worth the wait though as the food was very nice and was quite cheap too!

Dinner: Smoked salmon & goats cheese salad for starters, followed by mixed paella for main and chocolate brownie with ice-cream and hot fudge sauce for Dan and chicken & parmesan salad, roasted pork loin and strawberries with creme catalana for me. All for the bargain price of 37.99 Euros!