Barcelona.

Day 8 or so.
We have the tickets for what we want to visit in Barcelona, there's a free shuttle to take us the twenty or so miles to the centre of town.
The sun was shining brightly as we tore along the motorway, in the comfortable coach. Really wouldn't fancy this rush hour stuff, Nose to tail for miles, the look of apathy on the drivers, and for a lot of them, just another day in the office.
The coach left us off outside the Hard Rock Cafe, a useful meeting point. Our pre booked tickets for the tour bus, the hop on and off type would take us from there to our first stop, Sagrada Famillia, and what a stunning icon it is.
Our Nicola had visited it just before Australia mate, and extolled its majesty and urged us to visit if we got the chance.
It fully lived up to expectations, a huge nave with fabulous stained glass windows and a choir area to seat a thousand choristers. The architecture both inside and out was breathless.
Hordes of us tourists looked in awe, but I'm sure there were hungry eyes looking at the tourists for altogether different reasons. My wallet and Andreas camera were safely tucked into my front pockets. An area even Margaret doesn't visit! Yes Barcelona, for all its beauty has that undercurrent of pickpocket crime alive in its sewers, and comes up to prey on unsuspecting visitors spending their Euro in the city.
But never mind that, after well over an hour we decided to get some rays. Early March doesn't usually lend itself to getting a tan in the northern hemisphere.
Park Guell, is a strange place, it would be easier for you to understand what it's all about if you go to the link. I'm not sure what it was all about, but it was very interesting. A sort of Alice in Wonderland scenario, best to visit the park with no drink taken.
On our way up the long hill on which the park is situated we called in to a local pub for a bit of lunch. This was our first venture into Barcelonas eating out offering. Nothing special, peppers stuffed with puréed cod, and the usual carbonara. Two beers and bread took the price to around €23. A good price
for a large city. The park took about two hours to see, and we were knackered at the end. We caught the bus touristica back to the centre for a beer before the bus back to our camp.
Just had dinner and a couple of drinks in Helga and then bed before ten thirty. We know how to live the life.
Up early to do a bit more blog before our second trip to Barcelona. It seemed warm enough so I left my jacket but good ould Marg wore hers.
My mistake, we had planned to do Las ramblas, the port, marinas, South of the city and the market etc. when we got off the coach, we went straight to las Ramblas, it was cold and windy. Even at ten in the morning the place was hiving with tourists, specially Spanish, French and far eastern. My valuables were neatly stowed away, but it wasn't great weather for parading round Spain. Change of plan, We made a bolt for the bus touristic stop and got on almost immediately. Bloody good job too, because the wind was howling and cold and me in a tee shirt!
Eejit!!
The top deck was closed because it had just started to rain, inside there were only about six other
souls, all wearing coats and winter clothing.
Pretty soon the numbers dwindled and there were only five on the bus now, two Japanese at the very front, us in the middle and a single dark skinned guy behind.
No wonder, the windows were all steamed up, it was a grey old day, even the tourists are hiding.
We found ourselves at the old port and there's a huge shopping mall built, so we got off and went in for a warm up! Needn't have bothered, the design of the building was such, that several large areas were open to the elements, not unlike the Victoria Centre in Belfast. The wind was chasing around here as well, and several parties of French school children running amok didn't help to make it seem better. Had a look around and decided to go to the market for a late lunch and some goodies.
The market, ah yes, the market is a haven for foodies. All sorts, and the thing that amazed me most was the quality, especially the meat. Things have come a long way in Spain in recent years.
No ould banter with the stall holders, most of them couldn't speak English. What kind of place is it anyway.
Delicious cheeses, cooked meat, fruit and veg were the order of the day.the wee restaurant we went into was having staff problems. Yes, they were all ill tempered twats, everything was a hassle. I thought if we watched Fawlty Towers when we got home it would be very fitting. We did and it was.
After dinner and dishes washed, it was time to write another wee bit of blog. I'd taken a lot of pics the day before and hardly any today, so I'd upload them all onto the laptop.
I'm hell for leaving things down and forgetting where. I hunted, along with Margaret for the camera, my heart sank. No camera. I last had it on the bus touristic, sitting on the seat beside me. It was not there when I got off, I'm hell for checking that sort of stuff. The young single dark skinned bastard had taken it. No doubt. No doubt at all, he was the only one who would have had a chance, and why would a young single fella be on that bus in the morning time. Bastard. I'd been screwed. But worse and not so worse. Patsy had offered to lend me her camera, but in the end couldn't, so our Andrea lent me hers. I'm so sorry Andrea. Big mistake on my part, but you can have my hybrid, or I'll get you a new one. After all the warnings, after I was so dam careful. I'm so pissed off.
What's done is done, time to move on.
We had a very leisurely breakfast outside off fresh baguette, from the camp shop, and cheese and ham from our foray into the market.