http://alisonslife-in-the-slow-lane.blogspot.com/ Life in the Slow Lane: BACK HOME!

Wednesday 16 May 2012

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















16 comments:

  1. Welcome back! Sounds like you had a lovely time! Your photos of la Boqueria takes me back! We tried so many goodies there! The tin of paprika I got there I still use and refill! Happy memories :)

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  2. What fabulous pictures! So glad you had a great time, I am totally jealous of all the glorious sunshine though :) xx

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  3. Sounds like you had a fabulous time

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  4. Your photos make me want to revisit Barcelona - especially now that the cathedral is more picturesque!

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  5. I"ve totally bookmarked this post - it makes me so excited for our upcoming trip!
    Rinda

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  6. Reminds me how much I love Barcelona.

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  7. the market looks fabulous - I love the care they took in displaying the fruit with all the leaves. thanks for sharing Barcelona

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  8. Good to see you back. Sounds like you had a fab time - Barcelona is on my list of places to visit.

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  9. Wow, that is MY kind of market! We just can't seem to "do" fresh produce here like they can on the continent.

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  10. The market does look amazing - why don't we have anything like that here??! That's intersting about the cinema: when we were in Norawy last year we were told that lots of the tv programmes are in English with Norwegian subtitles and that's why everyone speaks such good English

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  11. I loved all those market colours too Alison. Glad to hear you had a lovely time, enjoy scraping the photos x

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  12. Sounds like you had a great time and that waiter sounds so funny, I would love to hear him :) x

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  13. Love the food shopping shots!! So different here in the states. ~ Blessings

    http://gracescraps.blogspot.com/

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  14. Hahaha - this was such a funny post! That cinema experience sounds hilarious as does the waiter! Fabulous photos!! Oh camera batteries are the BAIN OF MY LIFE!!!

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  15. Your pictures are wonderful and that market looks fantastic. Nothing remotely similar here. Got a chuckle out of hearing about your waiter and his various accents.

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  16. The pictures of the market are absolutely stunning, Alison! I love taking photos of markets as well... :)

    Barcelona looks really lovely, and is definitely on our list of places to visit once the girls are a bit older.

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