BACK HOME!

Kirsty and I arrived back from Barcelona earlier this afternoon, having dropped DH at the airport at 9.30 this morning and finding our way back on to the motorway heading south.


I have to say that we managed to squeeze quite a bit into our two days!


We headed out on Monday morning...our planned destination being BARCELONA CATHEDRAL (NOT La Sagrada Familiar) which, Kirsty had informed me, had no scaffolding on it- the first time in all the time she's been there- so that HAD to be a photo opportunity!


We took the Metro into the city centre, getting off at the stop just beside the building Kirsty's Uni moved to, just at the beginning of this year....

As we were walking to LA RAMBLA, we almost got caught up in one of the student demonstrations

The beautiful main square in the city centre (Placa Catalunya) is full of protesting students at the moment (against Education cuts and the economy in general), including pitched tents in the garden areas

We stopped of at the huge indoor market- La Boqueria- which has the most amazing array of fresh food I have ever seen in one place!

Eventually we actually made it to the Cathedral.....

....where, would you believe?.....my camera battery ran out!!!!! 

To say I was mad at myself (for not charging it!) was an understatement. Kirsty and I DID go for a walk around it, but I just got more and more annoyed at myself and we soon gave up and went to  meet DH- who had adjourned to a Cafe, as Churches are not his thing at all. 

After getting lost a few times (as is Kirsty's wont) trying to find the place she wanted to take us for lunch...and then discovering it was closed for refurbishment(!), we ended up at a little place  very near the seafront and had lovely salads and pasta..yes it was Italian, but that is a very nice change for us!

The funniest thing was that the waiter spoke English, but had learned to speak it in Benidorm.... (for those overseas readers who have never come across the name, Benidorm is a coastal resort, much-loved by the British and totally over-run by them in the summer months)...and he spoke with the most amazing mix of accents! One minute he was Scottish, the next broad Yorkshire, then a real south East accent- you name it, they were all there...we couldn't help but laugh!

After a little bit of shopping, we went back to the apartment (to rest our weary legs), before heading out at night......we had decided to go the Cinema, as there is much more choice in Barcelona, than there is here! ......'THE LORAX' has been the only film on in English here, for the last six weeks!!!

We opted for 'LOS VENGADORES' (The Avengers), which I must confess was much better than I expected! 

You may remember in THIS POST , I mentioned that in the Cinema nearest to us, we have to wear infra-red headsets to enable us to hear the film in it's original language. In Barcelona, the film is actually shown in its ORIGINAL version, with Spanish subtitles...which is great until you come to a part in the film where Russian/ Japanese (or whatever) is being spoken...and the subtitles are STILL in Spanish!!!..oh well, you can't win them all!

Well, I think that's enough for one day...the rest of the sightseeing will have to wait till tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx