It's time I backtracked to our time in Barcelona, Wednesday 13th -Monday 18th November. Goodness me, that long ago - oops. So much for good intentions. Here goes - we had a good length of time thanks to the generosity of the teachers who told me to have Thursday and Monday off and a timetable which meant we could leave Azpeitia on Wednesday afternoon and not be back until Tuesday morning Yay.
We went by bus to San Sebastian and then by train (not the super-fast one) to Barcelona. Due to delays along the way we arrived in Barcelona about an hour late. No idea what the cause of the delays were but we'd be trucking along and then slow down, sometimes we'd stop completely. This meant that we got to our rented apartment at least an hour later than expected which didn't seem to bother the owner who was waiting on the street for us. Hans is his name and he is great, very welcoming and has lots of info about places to see and places to eat etc. The apartment had 2 bedrooms, everything anyone could possibly need, no TV but who needs one, 3 balconies, kitchen, sitting room, good coffee. It was after 1am by the time Hans left us, we'd got sorted and got to sleep so it was a slow start to our first day. It was a fabulous blue sky, sunshine day and so was Friday but on Saturday morning we woke up to find grey sky, cold temperatures and pouring rain - this was to stay for the rest of our time in Barcelona, unfortunately. Fortunately the metro was about 1 minute from our apartment but, disappointingly, the metro was how we got about for most of the time so we didn't get to do a lot of walking about the city exploring the back streets which is one of the things we both really enjoy doing. We did do some, but not a lot, and then the rain would suddenly arrive so we joined everyone else and became part of the umbrella brigade. Sometimes we got soaked anyway. The cold, wet weather also meant we didn't get to sit out on any of the balconies supping our vino and watching the people go by. However, the metro was a great way to get about. I loved how easy it is to use and we that didn't have to wait any time at all for one to come along once we got to the right platform. Getting to the right platform did take some time on a few occasions, no fault of the metro system, more that we had to read all the maps and info to make sure we got on the right platform to go
in the direction that we wanted to go in and not the opposite one. Our training with the London Underground stood us in good stead, although the Barcelona Metro was nowhere near as crowded as the London Underground, possibly it os a different story in the summer. Good exercise too with some long stretches of corridors and lots of stairs.
We were very organised and had written a 'to do' list on the train journey and we did do most of the things that we wanted to do despite the weather. We had the benefit of Emma and Brit's recent experience, maps and guide books, in Barcelona and also tips from other people as well. Thanks heaps people - you know who you are xxx
What we didn't do was the gondala ride across the harbour - yes, it would have been as scary as hell but what a blast; see the Santa Maria del Mar church, the Picasso Museum, and the roof of La Pedrera which is apparently the best part of it. Both the gondala ride and the roof of La Pedrera were closed because of the weather and we missed out on the Picasso Museum because we got there on Sunday afternoon the queue was miles long. It was cold and wet so we decided to give Picasso a miss and later Barry discovered that there is free entry to this museum every Sunday afternoon so that's why there was such a long queue.
What we did do: Plaza de Cataluna; wandered down Las Ramblas, had been warned about pickpockets; wandered about the Boqueria Market - should have been aware of tourist prices; walked along the beach - feet in The Mediterranean Sea; Tourist Bus rides (2); Park Guell and our 1st look at Gaudi stuff; Sagrada Familia; the Hiberian Bookshop; Plaza de España and the Magic Fountain; Hospital de Sant Pau and the walk from there to the Sagrada Familia; La Pedrera (more Gaudi ) - so all in all not too shabby a visit.
The view from Barcelona train station platform where we waited for our train
waiting ... waiting .... waiting
not sure if this is the way the train will go or is coming from
The door to our apartment building. Our place was on the first floor, thankfully, because there is no lift in this building
the view from one of our balconies. Under the marquee like structure along the middle of the street is
a huge market. One of the things we really liked was that our apartment was not in a tourist area so for one thing the price was good and also that all about us were the the ordinary shops, bars, restaurants that local people use and this market is part of the local scene This is a temporary site while the old market buildings are refurbished. We would love to be able to come back when the market is back in its proper home because the building looks amazing, just a short walk from here. The market is called The Mercat de Sant Antoni. Sant Antoni is the name of the local area?
It was impossible to get a decent photo of the whole building because it's enormous and is a building site with barriers, hoardings and work sheds all around it.We thought that it looks amazing and would love to see it when the market is operating here again.
A tiny little part of the Sant Antoni Market. It was easily as good as the famous Boquiera market which is on La Rambla - there will be more about this one another day
Sometimes there's work to be done.
So ends the first episode of our time in Barcelona.
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