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. 

HOHO bus and Parc Guell

 We arrived in Barcelona yesterday,  but we were exhausted  so today was our first  real day of activities.   We spent  the morning  on an open topped Hop On Hop Off bus driving around the northern  part of the city and seeing  some very pretty  houses.

We hopped off the bus down on the seafront and had a lovely  lunch at a seafood restaurant.  

Then we walked along the seafront for a while and hopped  back on the bus at Port Olimpic.   Saw the olympic park and Sagrada Familia from the bus. We'll  be visiting Sagrada Familia later in the trip,  so I'll do proper  photos  then. 

Eventually, we got off the bus at the bus station  and made our way up to Parc Guell.  For some  reason  Becky  insists on pronouncing it Gruel (like the food).  I don't know  where she got that from  as there's no  R in it and the LL is pronounced like AY in Spanish,  so it's  actually pronounced as Gway.

Off to Barcelona

 

Heading  out tomorrow for a week in  Barcelona.  Watch this  space.