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.