Gran Hotel Europe Coma Ruga

Another night parked by the beach which means opening the curtain to a beautiful sunrise in the morning. Val happily sat on a seat on the promenade with her cuppa tea and watched the people walk / run / cycle / skate by. Val is definitely a people watcher, which is great because ...

... mia sinistra solo questo mare azzurro e profondo. Sulla mia destra la ferrovia, e il promontorio roccioso. Non è il luogo più sicuro del mondo: ogni cinque minuti un treno Talgo mi sfreccia a due metri a 250 chilometri all'ora e mi devo bloccare per non cadere a terra o peggio, cadere verso il treno perdendo l'equilibrio. E' un paesaggio dolce e di sogno; ormai cammino da almeno venti minuti e avrò percorso almeno duemila metri su e giù per la roccia bianca ...

... quite a bit of time together, swimming, sunbathing and dancing. One day we go sightseeing in Barcelona and a couple of musicians come busking on the train - they play several tangos for us and we get up and dance and entertain the other passengers. There are 3 main beaches in Sitges - a long, straight beach along which runs a promenade, then there's a promontory with a church and some beautiful old buildings and below is the curve of beach where we danced in the evenings ...

... and spent the ride with me, lucky for her i found an extra ticket...i gave it to her just to pay it forward from my previous freebee day! On La Ramblas is an open-air market where i crammed in for a seat at lunch and ate a plate of salmon and clams as well as ordered food for the french people around me who were trying to get mixed fish but kept getting veggies :) And as the finale, last night on La Ramblas around midnight i hooked up ...

... you could almost visably see them soften to the sound of the music. One by one...their ears and shoulders and limbs relaxed as the strumming just about melted their hearts...absolute surrender. He played traditional songs, and more contemporary ones. He manipulated the strings and wood to make the guitar sound like a twittering bird...and then a drum...and then a musicbox..and then a harpsicord! All the while he did not look at us ...

... is another of Gaudi's buildings which he completed before starting La Sagrada Familia. It has been described as a roller coaster of melting ice-cream. We didn't go inside as we had more Gaudi to see. Walked a few blocks to 'Block of Discord', various architects trying to out do each other. Gaudi's is the first and gets the most attention. A few photos here and then a taxi ride to our next stop, Parc Guell ...

... almost 2 hours for Brittany to check one little bag. But we made it to our flight in time and got back without a hitch. The trip was absolutely perfect - it was so relaxing and sort of recharged all of us. You don't realize it when you're in London, but when you get out you notice - the sun doesn't shine much here :) It was nice to be somewhere warm and sunny after rainy, cold London. Now all I have to do is resist the urge to say "hola" and "gracias" to English people!

... bit. It was one of the million and one Irish pubs in Barcelona. And then we just walked around for a little bit. There are strange people there and a whole lot of prostitutes on the streets. It was...interesting. Saturday: We went to the market for breakfast and I saw a whole pig at a vendor. It was so sad! But we went to the Picasso Museum after. It was so much better than I expected. Most of the ...

... so, then tapas and a pub crawl. A very relaxing and fun day. I'm paying for it now with burns on my chest, but it was nice when we were there. So I have talked before about the benefit of tours, especially bike tours because you can cover so much of the city. We did a Fat Tire bike tour on our first day in Barcelona and it covered all the important sights, gave us a whole bunch of interesting history and facts, and helped us to understand the city. Do tours and bike ...

... nice. My favourite part of the city was definitely the Gothic Quarter, which is basically the oldest section. Its sort of like Old Montreal only 10x older and less touristy and filled with really cool shops and restaurants.