London Day 2

For my 2nd full day in London I met up with my friend Kris and her 2 daughters.  Daughter number 1 (Ella) is getting married in September, so we went to a wedding fair in West Ealing to have a look around.  The fair wasn't that big, but there was a fashion show with some hilarious looking dresses,  including one with a sheer/see-through top with strategically placed embroidery.  But we were convinced there was still some nipplage showing. 

After the fair we headed into downtown London to Seven Dials market for lunch.  Daughter number 2 (Katie) was eyeing up some ice-cream for dessert - but they only had soft serve, so we didn't bother.   

We met up with Dann (Ella's fiance) and headed to Walker and Slater's tailor shop, which looked like something out of the movie "Kingsman".   There we proceeded to have our own afternoon of "Say Yes to the Dress"  (although in this case it was "Say Gut to the Suit") and had Dann model several suits, with different ties, braces, shoes, etc.  It was a lot of fun and a decision was made on the perfect suit at the end of it all.

We ended up heading to the ice-cream parlour at Fortnum and Mason to celebrate the finalization of Dann's wedding outfit.   Ella and Katie had not been there before, so we had to tour the whole store.   

It was a wonderful day and I was so lucky to have been able to take part in some of Ella and Dann's wedding planning.  

London Day 1

After flying in from Barcelona I decided to spend 2 full days in London to meet up with friends.   Day 1 was meeting up with my old Uni friend:  Andy B.  We met in the morning at Paddington and after a quick brekkie at Costa we made our way via tube and DLR to Greenwich where we took a quick look around Greenwich market before heading to the Cutty Sark.

For those of you that aren't British,  the Cutty Sark is the last remaining tea clipper and one of the fastest sail powered ships of her time.   She is now a museum ship in dry dock in Greenwich.   As well as looking around the ship itself and taking in the display of old ship figureheads we also had Afternoon Tea in the glass cafe built under the keel of the ship.

A few months ago I'd come across a video of the creepiest places in London on Youtube -and one of them was the Greenwich foot tunnel, which is the only foot tunnel under the Thames.  I'd thought it would be a great place to try myself, so when we left the ship and found the entrance to the foot tunnel right in front of us we decided to walk across to the North side of the Thames.

It really is quite a creepy place.  It's quite long (about .4 of a mile).  It also has a shallow up/down curve to it is shallowest at the ends and deeper in the middle.  This means that you can see a long way down it - but the path disappears towards the ceiling at the end of your line of sight.   We were in there in the middle of the afternoon and there were plenty of people about,  but I certainly wouldn't want to be in there on my own at night.  

After that we took the tube over to Bond Street and walked to Manchester Gardens (just behind Selfridge's) to go  around the Wallace Collection.  This is another of London's free museums - and well worth a visit.  

We rounded out the day with some shopping in Selfridge's and Fortnum and Mason before having an evening meal at a pub near Paddington.  

It was lovely to see my old friend for the day -  last time we'd seen each other in person was pre-Covid.

Last day in Barcelona

Today was our last full day in the city and the weather turned for the worst.  It had been raining overnight, but was at least dry, if not that warm, when we set out of the Palau de Musica Catalana (the Palace of Catalan Music).  We took a tour of this extremely ornate building.

When we reached the actual concert hall there was a full rehersal going on and the orchestra played the first movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto while we sat and watched.   We left early in the beginning of the 2nd movement to continue our tour.  So we got a free concert included the price of our entry ticket.

After this we walked up Las Ramblas and Passeig de Gracia (the main shopping areas) to Casa Mila.  This is a Gaudi designed apartment building that is also known as La Pedrada.   While we were out on the rooftop of the building (which is at multiple different levels and covered in steps) it started to rain.   The rooftop is closed when it rains so we were lucky to see it.   

After this we walked, in the rain, back down to the seafront and had a late afternoon meal at a nice seafood restaurant.  By the time we'd finished eating the weather had not improved and we were feeling cold and damp from all the walking in the rain that we'd done earlier.   So we decided to take a cab back to the hotel and spend the evening warming up while we packed for our trip to the airport early tomorrow morning.

Our week in Barcelona has been lovely and just the right amount of time to get around everything we wanted to see without being totally exhausted.   

Stay tuned for a couple more blog entries while I meet up with friends in London. 

Monserrat and Winery

This morning we walked from the hotel to the bus station, where we were meeting  our tour guide for our tour of Monserrat.   It was about an hour's drive to the base of the mountain (which is said to have been  Gaudi's inspiration for the design of the Sagrada Familia). 

We then had a 15 minute ride on the cog railway up to the monastery.  The views from the top were amazing.

The monastery was founded in 1025, but was restored more recently  after being attacked by both Napoleon and Franco.  It houses the statue of the black Madonna. Miracles  have been  attributed to the statue.

After our tour of the basilica, lunch and some shopping  time, we proceeded down the mountain to the winery of Oller del Mas.  This place was even older than the monastery, having been owned and run by the same family since 964.

We tasted several wines and enjoyed some tapas before heading back to Barcelona for the evening.

Monjuic and the Gothic Quarter

 

We started the day by trying breakfast at a nearby place that had caught our eye.

Honestly, the "japanese pancakes"  were OK, but nothing to write home about,  and the service was frustratingly slow.   So we won't be going there again.  

After that we took a cab up Montjuic which is a mountain overlooking the city.  The normal way to go up is by cable car - but I don't do cable cars if I can avoid them.  Unfortunately, the cab couldn't go all the way up, so we had to walk the rest of the way.   
Views from the castle at the top of the mountain were spectacular. 

We then walked down the mountain again and went over to the Gothic Quarter.  By this time we were knackered having walked part of the way up and down a mountain.  We stopped for lunch at a nice bistro at about 3pm.   

Finally, we walked all the way from the Gothic Quarter back to the hotel.  Now we are completely cream crackered and we're having an early night as we are off to Monserrat tomorrow for our wine tasting tour.  

Sagrada Familia and Flamenco

We both slept in this morning  after such a long day yesterday.   Went for brunch at a nearby restaurant,  where Becky  finally  got her paella.

After that we walked to Casa Batllo and did a tour. Stopped off at the rooftop bar to have a mimosa.  

After that it was off to Sagrada Familia and some souvenir  shopping. Sagrada Familia is still a long way from finished.  They are currently working on the main tower, which should be 172.5m tall when finished.   (Highest  tower on a church anywhere).  They are hoping to complete it next year on the 100th anniversary of  Gaudi's death.  

Finally, the day was rounded out with a flamenco show.  Andy is lucky I didn't meet that male dancer before  I met him.....

Andorra and the Pyranees

We were up at 5am this morning to walk to the Palau de Musica where we were meeting our bus for a "3 countries tour".   This was to include stops in Spain, France and Andorra and also a stop high up in the Pyranees.

Our first stop was the lovely Medieval town of Baga.  We had a short walking tour of the town and had a lovely apple pastry and a drink at the local bakery.

Unfortunately the weather then turned bad.  The temperature dropped to zero and it started to snow.  The pass that we were supposed to take into the higher regions of the Pyranees was blocked, so we had to take a lower route into France and although we stopped again at a small town in France,  Becky and I declined the walking tour and spent the half hour in another bakery having a hot coffee.  By this time there was a high wind and the snow was blowing horizontally and we just didn't want to see the town that desperately. 

Fortunately,  the weather had improved a bit by the time we arrived at our 3rd stop of the day in Andorra.   Andorra is a new country for me to add to my list and there was a short delay on arrival as we all wanted our passports stamped.   Andorra is  tiny country with a population of just 80000 people and the official language is Catalan.  Despite being sandwiched between France and Spain,  Andorra is not a member of the EU.   As far as I can tell from the signs I've seen in the streets, Catalan is a sort of mishmash of French and Spanish.   For example, the word for exit  is Sortie in French and Salida in Spanish.... in Catalan it's Sortida.  

Andorra is mainly about tax free shopping.  Set high up in the Pyranees it's also reminiscent of some of the towns I visited in the skiing areas of Switzerland.   We ate in a cafeteria (reminded me of where I ate in Interlaken),  walked around the old town a bit (reminded me of Zermatt) and finally had coffee and a cinnamon bun in a local bakery before heading back to the bus.   

The highlight of Andorra was this place - unfortunately Becky and I didn't have time to take  class:

I slept on the bus for most of the trip home because I'd been up so early and it was a long day.   We finally got back into Barcelona at about 7pm and were dropped off near the Arc de Triomf.  So we had a quick look at that before walking back to the hotel and getting an early night.