Barcelona

So finally got out of glasgow for a week, in the lovely warm and sunny Barcelona with Jack. We left cold grey rainy glasgow and arrived to 25-30 degree's! The place we stayed in was just off the start of la Ramblas, the main strip in the city, in a really nice apartment that was decorated with a bit of ikea flair. It had a well equiped kitchen which we ended up using a bit.

The first day we arrived in the afternoon so we walked down to the beach and had a bit of a wander around, ate some overpriced and rather bad tapas and then went back to the apartment. The next day we had to find Jack some cooler shoes, cause it was so hot and he didn't bring any summer shoes with him. We'd already decided to take a picnic to parc guel, Gaudi's park, so we went to the famous markets off la Ramblas and found ourselves some lovely chorizo, cheese and fresh bread, fruit and veg and we hopped on the tourist bus which took us past some other Gaudi sites on our way to the park. It was one of the best picnic's I've ever had. There were 3 guys playing some spanish sounding music, acoustic guitar and bass and a simple drum kit. That night we found our local tapas just out the front of the apartment to be the best, also much cheaper. We went back there the next night after doing another day of the tourist bus, including a visit to Gaudi's church la Familiar, the olymic park, mt monjuic and port vell. We went for a few drinks that night after dinner with another aussie couple who were staying in the apartment with us. The next few days we just relaxed and spent more time walking around the city and the beach. I'd heard about some roman ruins at a town called Sitges, so we hopped on a train one afternoon to go and have a look only when we got there we couldn't find anything, it was a pretty town on the beach though. Our last day we'd arranged to hire a car and drive 3 hours to Figueres which is Dali's home town and where there is a theatre museum which he designed and another museum. We took the scenic route along the coast which was really nice. We had another good, cheap tapas just near the theatre museum and then walked up to the doors of the museum, only to find that it was closed. When I asked a woman in the shop next door she said that all the museum's, including Dali's own house 30 mins away which is also a museum now, were all closed on mondays! Barcelona shuts down on sundays, which we knew about but no one had mentioned nor any guide book that I'd read had said anything about Dali town closing on mondays. We still enjoyed the drive though but it was a little dissappointing especially as it was our last day.

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention, but which I was really excited about was visiting Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion, it always looked amazing in photo's but to actually be inside it was another thing!