Barcelona, magic city

So before we even got to Barcelona we had to do a quick stop in Perpignan to drop off our rental car. Luckily for us (not) the whole city centre seemed to be full of diversion and one ways, especially around where we had to drop off the car. Anyway we made it through most of the mess (which included a broken French and hand gesture conversation with 4 different locals about where a petrol station was) and we could finally see the drop of point only to be confronted with a no left turn. Well that wasn’t going to stop us so we made the turn anyway, bad move, a speeding Frenchman came around and had to slam on his brakes. Ok so fair enough it was our fault but this guy went NATO and just started screaming at us from his car, hand gestures and feints to get out of his car, right in the middle of the road. After five minuets he must have got tired so just drove off, still making ridiculous hand movements. Gotta love the French

3 hours, a bus and a 2km walk later and we got to our apartment we’d rented for the week in Barcelona. We went and got groceries, not knowing where we were. We could have walked another 2 blocks to see one of the cities main attractions, the Sagrada Familia.

The next day was supposed to be jam packed but ended up being a bit of a slow day, which was my fault. On our way to the first thing we were doing, a bike tour, we got totally lost. Not once or twice but more times than I can remember, all I can say is getting a map should be on the top of your list when you get to Barcelona. After missing out on the bike tour we just aimlessly wandered around the city staying away from the main tourist tracks. We found ourselves out on the edge of the city near the hills where a interactive museum that we’d been recommend to go to was. Another thing that old people and kids go to, seriously where are all the people our age?

Ahh well stuff people our age, we know what we like and children’s entertainment falls in that category. The museum was easily the best interactive science museum ever. It took me back to when I’d go to our local science museum in Palmy.

Rach using a jet of air to float the polystyrene ball onto the hoop

Our next day was a bit more organized, we did make it on time for the bike tour. The highlight of which was catching out tour guide out when he spiel some false story but ringing the bells on our bikes until the whole tour group was ringing.

Sagrada Familia

The cubist/angled side

Nice little bikes all lined up in a row

We were in Barcelona for 5 days and not all of it was getting lost and hassling tour guides

We walked ourselves around Antoni Gaudí's buildings, just so Dr Seuss

I can’t decide if I like the style, they all look like they are melting

Not Antoni Gaudí's but every city should have a giant smiling lobster sculpture


We bought an English newspaper and sat on the beach for an afternoon.

Walked up one of the surrounding hills to watch the sunset

Saw the fountain and lights show, set to classical music

And on our last day got in just a bit more weird Dr Suess architecture by Gaudí



We really liked our time in Barcelona and probably should have stayed longer, ah well travels must go on.