Area 136

Barcelona Harbour/marina.

Click for full pic.

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The scale of this place is amazing. As is the fact that they have been building it for about 100 years. Ask them to put up a hotel on an unspoilt beach however.......

Damn hot, soup like air and boiling clouds through which the bright Spanish sun would burst at regular intervals. 29 – 31 degrees of heat and a hotel room with no air con. People in the next room shagging very loudly. A very small lift creaks you up to the fourth floor and almost gives up under the weight of two people and hand luggage.

The square outside is vibrant and full of Palm trees from which green parakeets squawk at each other, we sit at a Cervesary beneath the arches and drink cold beer and realise we have been up since 3am. A siesta in our boil in the bag hotel room does not seem very inviting but may have to occur at some stage, but it is only 11 am.

Side streets off Las Ramblas are narrow and inviting during the day, some less so in the evenings but down there wait the small and interesting Tapas bars Cervesaries. Never eat or drink in the places in the middle pedestrian strip of Las Ramblas, not unless you have a lot of money you want to get rid of. And never eat in a place that does not display prices on its menu board.

A city of insane architecture, you can turn a corner and be stunned by an apartment block that looks like it is melting or made of bones. The women of Barcelona are just as jaw dropping, dark haired and dark eyed and all sorts of curvy. I almost fell down the steps of the metro looking at the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. English girls are easy to spot, badly dressed in ill advised shorts and strappy tops by day – badly dressed like girls on their lookout for a hen night to join in the evening. And always pale and blond.

The harbour is a good place to head for in the evening, a little cooler and bright with reflected light, fish leap in the water as they shoal together to avoid bigger fish. Big yachts and cruisers bob and incite fantasies on lottery wins or fame and fortune. Then you see people sleeping on the grass in some of the squares. Compare and discuss.

Food can come slowly but is good when it arrives. Some serving staff could give French waiters lessons in Surly, some bar owners are not exactly welcoming, but you just move on to the next one. There is always a next one.

So - Barcelona. I liked it.

(If you want detail, look out for Shipscook posting stuff. He actually wrights stuff down you know.)

Our hotel, on the left. Fully deserving of it's solitary star but at least it was cheap and right in the centre of things.

The square outside at night,

And if you came out of the hotel and turned left you could saunter down here, just not after dark.

I iz an gargoils!

Seen on that there unfinished big church in Barcelona.