All good things must come to an end

The final day of our holiday and Barcelona gave us a sunny 17 degree  day to finish.

We had considered several options for activities – horse riding, skiing but they involved full fairly strenuous days and were injury risks. In the end we settled for a chocolate tour, two hours of decadence. However when we arrived at our designated meeting place we discovered the tour wasn’t running. With refund in hand we had to think of an alternative.

What hadn’t we done in Barcelona? The erotic museum? Then Felicity remembered one of the guides recommending a view. We searched our guide book and ended up catching a funicular and then cable car to a castle towering above the city. It overlooked the sea and was used to watch for invasions as well as defence.

Returning to the city we promenaded around the port, mainly on boardwalks built over the ocean. We also jumped on a boat for a short cruise around the bay.

Dinner was back to our very favourite restaurant. We had some tapas and paella. The waitress welcomed us back, the owner came to chat to us as valued guests. We had decided to skip dessert but we were presented with a complimentary creme brûlée and liqueur. The dessert we enjoyed very much, we poured the drink into our water glasses so it looked like the ice had melted!

It has been a great holiday. Not nearly as cold as we had imagined.  We worked well together, we both planned the activities, Felicity did a brilliant job of negotiating the transport systems and navigating, only losing me once. The fear of telling Mark she had lost me made her more cautious for the rest of the trip. I asked for directions, made the difficult phone calls (we can’t get the key out of the lock) and shooed the pigeons away.

An early start tomorrow and long flight home.

Views over Barcelona

Port of Barcelona

One last food photo

Las Ramblas

Montserrat: Home of the Mountain Gods

We headed into the mountains again today, this time by train.

Given my fear of heights and Felicity ‘s lack of fear it was fortunate the cable car wasn’t running so we made the climb by rack railway. It was a 50/50 chance but we managed to sit on the side with the dramatic views over the valley.

Once at the top we reached Santa Maria de Montserrat a Benedictine Abbey, nestled into the Rocky Mountain. The first structure dated back to 880 AD.

We walked around the Abbey before going into the church to hear the boys’ choir perform. The voices and acoustics were amazing. It is one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Europe dating back to the 14th Century.

We queued to climb the stairway through ornate rooms, silver doors leading to the ornate altar which holds the famous Black Madonna. She was carved in Jerusalem and moved to Montserrat in 718 to protect her from the invading Saracens.

A walk up to a vantage point for views of the monastery completed our visit.

Back to Barcelona for paella for dinner.

View over Montserrat

View from the lookout

Montserrat

Listening to the choir

Can’t have a blog without a food update

Trip to the Sea: Exploring Costa Brava

Another day tour today.  A late start because 2 girls were significantly late arriving.

This time to a town called Girona to the north east of Barcelona. It is known for its medieval architecture, walled old quarter and Roman remains. What we liked best was standing on one of the many bridges spanning the river and seeing the reflection of the colourful houses.

As we traveled through Catalonia we appreciated why they would want independence from Spain and why Spain would resist. The farmland was lush with olive groves, orchards, dairy cattle, rice paddies and then tourism to top it off.

We then headed to the coast to the region of Costa Brava (wild coast) and a town called Calella de Palafrugell A white medieval town perched on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. It used to be called the Women’s Town because Franco decreed that the eldest son inherited the bulk of the property. This land was worthless in terms of farming and went to the women. Then when Spain was opened to the west,  wealthy holidaymakers discovered the town and beach. It was a cultural shock for the black clad women to see the bikini clad bodies. However they sold their houses for large sums of money, while the men still work the land.

We had lunch in a restaurant by the beach with great views of the rocks and ocean. We are with an American mother and daughter and with their google translator we tried to establish if there were bones in the fish. Translation was obviously lost as the fish I thought had no bones came with an entire skeleton!

Back to Barcelona with a vivid sunset as we drove.

Painted houses of Girona

 

Pals

Pals

Exploring the coast

Boats on the beach

 

“The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God”- Gaudi

Today was a Gaudi day.

Our walking tour guide advised us to visit Sagrada Família in the morning to see the best light coming through the stained glass windows. The church on the outside was incredibly detailed and the towers stretched high into the sky. Unfortunately we also had to look at the cranes as the Church won’t be finished until 2026. “There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me”-Gaudi.

Entering the church was startling, the sheer height of the roof, spiral staircases and above all the beautiful stained glass windows and skylights.

We then caught the metro to Park Güell, a public park system made up of gardens and structures designed by Gaudi. We saw a mosaic lizard, the snaking serpent bench and quirky buildings.

Dinner was tapas followed by Creme brûlée Catalonian style.

A work in progress

The three wisemen

Two of the many stained glass windows

Photos cannot do the scale of the church justice

Park Güell

Just another food photo

A Step Back in Time

A fairly early start this morning to join our tour to visit medieval villages in the hills surrounding Barcelona.

It was advertised as a small group tour but we were expecting more than 8 people! We were seated next to a girl from South Africa and spent a bit of time with her during the day.

Our first stop was Besalu, a tiny village accessible by a stone bridge with narrow winding streets and an old Jewish quarter. It is interesting that the Jews were not affected by the plague as early as the Christians because they washed their hands before each meal.

We then progressed along very windy roads as we climbed the hills with views of the snow capped Pyrenees in the background. We stopped at a viewpoint to take photos.

Out next village was Rupit, stretching along a river, this one was accessible by a swing bridge over the river. It has existed for centuries and grew when people wanted to escape the attacks from the Moors. It was perfectly preserved and many houses had the date they were built over the doorway. Most we 16th century but there were a couple of modern 17th century houses.

Our guide recommended a restaurant and certain typical Catalan dishes in the set menu. For 17 euro each we had entree, main course, dessert, drink and bread. We chose everything recommended and it was delicious.

Our final stop was for views of the country side.

We got back to Barcelona our in the evening, grabbed some tapas from the market to heat later (we weren’t hungry!) and headed home through the crowds of locals out on a Saturday night.

Entering Besalu

Besalú- view from the Jewish Quarter

View of the Pyrenees

Rupit

Rupit

Walking along the river

 

 

Barri Gòtic: the labyrinth of laneways

We woke to blue sky and sunshine and walked to join our free walking tour.

The tour lasted almost 3 hours. We walked past Roman ruins and through the old Jewish and Gothic quarters. We heard the short version of Barcelona’s history. We saw the bullet holes from the Spanish civil war, Gothic architecture and modern street art. We learnt that the Barcelona football fans chant “independence” when the clock hits 17.14 during a football match because Catalonia lost it’s independence in 1714.

The tour finished and we headed to one of the must see food markets. We roamed the stalls buying fresh, crusty bread and getting a variety of tapas. We finished with a gelati.

We just wandered for the rest of the day, getting lost in narrow laneways that would then open onto a courtyard or lead to a church.

Bullets and bombs damaged these buildings at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

One of the Cathedrals

Market off Las Ramblas

Window display for one of the shops

‘The Spanish Bridge of Sighs’

These things happen…

So it was goodbye tortes and cream teas and hello churros and paellas, we have arrived in Barcelona. The sun was shining and a mild 13 degrees.

Our apartment is very comfortable and in a fantastic location, being very close to Las

 

Ramblas. We are being careful with navigation because the streets all look very similar. Felicity has actually done a fantastic job of navigation this trip and has only lost me once!

We went to the supermarket to get our breakfast supplies, unlocked the main door, unlocked our apartment door only to have the key refuse to come out of the lock. We both tried for some time. In the end we had to apologetically ring the owner. He and his father spent a couple of hours fixing it! He assured us it wasn’t our fault.

Dinner was chicken paella – just for those readers who like to know what we are eating!

First impressions of Barcelona

Paella

Indulging in one of Britain’s Finest Traditions

A really special day for our last day in London.

We got off to a good start and went to Westminster Abbey. There is always so much to explore there, so many tombs of past Kings and Queens, Prime Ministers, writers including Chaucer. We felt the most poignant to be that of the unknown soldier, brought to rest amongst Royalty and the only grave never to be stood upon.

Next was the highlight of the day – high tea at the Ritz. The ambiance was all we had hoped for, the piano playing in the background, the silver tea service, fine china, attentive waiters. We were served a variety of sandwiches and cakes, then more sandwiches, then scones with jam and cream. Then a trolley was brought around with different cakes! We knew we couldn’t eat it all so surreptitiously smuggled some cakes into a tissue in the lap , then into a handbag. After a few moments we  noticed other tables were having food put into elaborate takeaway boxes! So we’ve surreptitiously  returned ours  to the plate ready for boxing.

Our final booking was the Harry Potter exhibition at the British library. We saw original handwritten notes, the review Alice the publishers daughter wrote recommending it be published plus medieval books depicting things such as unicorns, medicinal herbs and the tombstone of the real Nicholas Flammel.

We dropped into Harrods on our way home but didn’t buy anything.

A really good finish to our time in London.

Westminster Abbey

Yet another food photo

The Splendour of The Ritz

Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station

Harrods

Bath: In the Footsteps of Jane Austen

We had a train booked for Bath today, unfortunately only second class so no breakfast to pass the time.

We arrived in Bath to drizzling rain and dull skies. We headed straight to The Jane Austen Centre, closed this week for renovations but we had been in contact with the shop manager and he opened the shop especially for us.  Who can resist a mug with the start of Mr Darcy’s proposal on it?

The architecture in Bath is beautiful but the weather sent us looking for lunch we wanted somewhere with atmosphere and we found it in the Georgian Tearooms, established in 1852. We knew we were onto a good thing when all the other customers were local retirees.

We then walked up to Royal Crescent a lovely array of houses.

We particularly wanted to see the pump rooms which featured so much in some of Jane Austen’s novels. Today it is a tea rooms, so we went in for scones, jam and cream. We sat under a chandelier and listened to the  trio of piano, violin and cello. A good way to finish the day.

Steak pie and potato for lunch

Bath Abbey

The Royal Crescent

Taking the waters

For our readers who have missed the afternoon tea photos!

 

Harry Potter and The Phantom of the Opera

 

 

Today finally came, tickets to the Harry Potter studios had been booked for months in advance. Felicity was a trifle excited.

We caught the train to Watford Junction and hopped on the Hogwart’s shuttle bus. We went through the front doors of Hogwarts into the Great Hall, decked out for Christmas. There were Christmas decorations, the band seats were icicles and the tables laden with food. It actually was a huge, magnificent room.

From there we entered the sets. We saw Dumbledore’s study, Gryffindor common room, potions classroom, The Hollows,  Malfoy Manner, The Leaky Cauldron……. We walked through The Forbidden Forest, strolled down Diagon Alley and onto the Hogwarts Express. We saw costumes and prop after prop. Felicity also rode a broomstick, greeted Buckbeak and had a lesson in dueling with a wand. We both savoured a glass of butter beer.

It was recommended to spend 3 hours at the studios, we were there just over 5! Finally Felicity bought her Gryffindor robe, tie and headband to go with her wand. She is now ready for Bookweek.  It may be the first Harry Potter costume to be claimed on tax!

We spent tonight at the theatre – we had tickets for Phantom of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. One of our favourite musicals. We were not disappointed,the theatre interior , sets and voices were magnificent.