Barcelona

Awoke to another scorcher of a day and after breakfast ventured out into it

The first port of call was to an information kiosk at the port area to get an understanding of the transport system - shunned the hop on hop off buses in favour of the Metro.

Rambled up La Rambla a street which has a pedestrian precinct running up the middle with various touristy type stalls until we arrived at Mercat de la Boqueira a market which has been in existence since 1840.

 It is one of the most colourful markets we have come across with many stalls selling all sorts of food products and which look to be very good quality.

Then it was onto the Metro to get to Sagrada Familia.

The queue to enter would have been 200-300 metres long and the sun was beating down so decided to comeback later in the day and it was back to the Metro and off to Park Guell.

Park Guell is on the side of a hill some 4kms from downtown and is a park that contains the house where Gaudi lived the last 20 years of his life and also contains examples of his architectural use of ceramics.

The house is a museum containing examples of his furniture design which was another string to his bow.

Around mid-afternoon we returned to Sagrada Familia and found the queue to only be around 75 metres so after around 20-25 minutes we had our entry tickets and were in.

Antoni Gaudi designed this church in the later 1800's and the construction of it is not expected to be completed until 2026 at current progress which means it will have taken over 100 years to build.

Words will never describe it satisfactorily but it is one of those WOW structures - the geometrical shapes that he has used in the design give it internally an "abstract feel" and is nothing like the Cathedrals we have been in. It also has a very modern feel to it which surprised given that is was designed many years ago.

Externally it reminds of the Gothic shaped churches we saw in Germany on our first trip to Europe.

Returning to Catalunya station by Metro and a walk back down La Rambla before returning to the Hotel and a refreshing soak in the pool finished, well almost finished, an enjoyable day.

Regarding the Metro we took 8 different train trips and did not have to wait more than 4 minutes after arriving on the platform for any of the trains - Auckland commuters eat your heart out

The day was topped by a Skype chat to family back home.

Buenas noches

After Marseilles

Left Marseilles after breakfast on Wednesday morning while Mrs GPS was still asleep.

We made a call to turn left out of the hotel parking as that seemed the general direction we wanted to go in but to our horror turned straight into cars coming the other way on the one way system.

A shrug of the shoulders to the oncoming motorists and a hurried back up seemed to do the trick and we were on our way.

Another call was made to take the nearby A7 in the hope that Mrs GPS would come to life before we had gone too far but luckily our A7 call was the correct one which she confirmed when she got the sleep out of her eyes.

Arrived in Arles around mid morning and had difficulty determining where we were in the town but seemed to run across some of the old part of the city so found the nearest parking spot, parked our faithful Peugeot and walked back to the old part we had seen.

Sherry needed her morning coffee so went to a market stall where she endeavoured to explain to the man running the stall that she wanted a coffee with extra hot water on the side and some milk – her request was a mixture of French & English and when she had finished in very good English he said “So you want an Americano” and gave her a wink.

Arles is a town with a Roman Forum (amphitheatre) which is still in use for bull fighting twice a week – it is a working version of Rome’s Coliseum but is somewhat spoiled by the metal seating that has been installed to accommodate those sadistic people who enjoy the cruel sport.

 

 Nearby is the “theatre antique”  a half circle theatre looking out to a stage and the two remaining columns, again spoiled by modern installations.

From the top tier of the forum one gets a good view out over Arles and the Rhone River which meanders alongside the town.

 Arles is also noted for being the home of Van Gogh during the late 1800’s.

Time didn’t allow an extended stay as we needed to get to Carcassonne which was another 2 or so hours away so off we went and arrived in Carcassonne around 3.30pm.

On the way we saw 2 or 3 wind farms and it was obvious when we arrived in Carcassonne why the farms were in this area – there was a very stiff hot wind blowing from either the north, the south, the west or the east (I have no idea where any of those points actually are)

As we couldn’t book in to the accommodation until 4pm we left the car on the side of the road and walked into La Cite a perfectly restored medieval town now protected by UNESCO.

The place was crowded shoulder to shoulder with tourists so after a cup of coffee we left to book in to the hotel knowing we would be returning later.

An hour or so later we returned taking the 10 min walk from the hotel and the crowds had thinned a little so we were able to wander more comfortable around and through the streets which had numerous eating places and shops – very commercialised!

 They even cater specifically for the Japanese tourist.

In Marseilles we tried the dish of that region, Bouillabaisse and tonight we had the dish of the Carcassonne region, Cassoulet a white bean stew with pork, sausage and duck meat cooked in duck fat – very tasty, extremely rich and we suspect (know) unhealthy!

Awoke on Thursday and thought the world was coming to an end - it was heavily overcast and looked like rain was sure to fall but for at least another day we escaped.

As we moved away from Carcassonne towards Barcelona the cloud lifted and the day became clear and warm (ok, hot).

As we neared the A9 being the main motorway through to Barcelona, Mrs GPS had us leave the highway and travel for some 20 or minutes along back roads until we rejoined the A9 – she sure has a mind of her own!

At around 12.05pm with Sherry at the wheel we crawled across the border into Spain – for some 10kms prior to the border we were in 2 and sometimes 3 lanes of stop start traffic on the motorway. It was only after we passed the turn-off to Jonquera that normal speed was resumed.

What the attraction was at Jonquera we will never know!

Arrived in Barcelona and reasonably quickly found the hotel and with a little help from one of the staff got the Peugeot safely parked (and those who have used this hotel’s car park will know why that is some mission), luggage in the room and then out to find a laundromat to get some fresh clothes back into the suitcase.

The only downside to the hotel is that their internet is kaput but will be fixed tomorrow so I am told, but I was told this afternoon it would be fixed today!

The hotel staff also advised that the best pickpockets in the world are here in Barcelona so caution is obviously necessary – not a good “the best of” to be noted for!

We enjoyed a traditional Spanish paella in a restaurant recommended to us by an Englishman we met in a café (struck up a conversation because he was wearing a NZ branded T-shirt) – he plays rugby here in Spain and had played in the South Island, though he did not say which club, some years ago.