Last day in Barcelona and on to Nimes

Saturday

On our last day in Barcelona, after a slow start, I went off shopping by myself for an hour. No point getting cracking early as most shops don’t open until 11. Turning left from our apartment in the old part of town, there were 2 streets, Calle de Princesa and Calle de Carders, that formed a triangular shape with a main road at the end. This was great as it meant I could walk up one street, across, and down the other one, with no danger of getting lost – and I’d got to know our little corner of town quite well anyway - it was starting to feel like home!!

After my (quite unsuccessful) little pressie finding expedition, we grabbed bikes again and set off across town to bike around the waterfront. The waterfront is amazing – a bit like Wgtn multiplied by 100, there’s miles of it, and golden beaches all the way – just fantastic.

We loved Barcelona and felt a bit sad to be leaving; it’s definitely going on our list of places to return to one day.

Sunday

Caught the 8.45 train to Montpellier and connected from there to a train to Nimes. We arrived in town about 4pm– the temperature here is about 18 to 20 and it feels freezing after our days and nights of 28+ degrees!!! Unfortunately I’ve been sniffling and sneezing all day too.

Anyway, after a couple of hours settling in and blobbing we set off for a quick look around town. Nimes is quite a smallish town (pop. About 140,000) and was the first Roman settlement in France - it has its own colosseum – apparently Metallica recorded one of their albums in it!! – look forward to exploring more tomorrow and hope to be feeling better.

PS. There seem to be a lot of nice shoe shops!

I have to say that it’s good to be back in a place where I can speak a bit of the language – I hated knowing no Spanish!!

More Barcelona

We love Barcelona!! It is a wonderful city - the Gaudi buildings dotted around are fantastical - the people are laid back and warm - as is the weather, at around 22 to 30 degrees all day and all night.

Thursday we looked around from the tourist bus for a large part of the day as there are 2 routes which cover different parts of the city. We went to the city's largest museum, MNAC - we saw 2 wings, the Romanesque and the Gothic. That took over 2 hours and was incredible


We learned on the bus that we had landed at the beginning of another festival!!!! It is Merce - Barcelona's patron saint's anniversary (from Thursday night through to Sunday). Thursday evening there was a big fireworks display and parade with fire breathing dragon's and 'giants' (huge dolls)- Friday was a public holiday, lots of street theatre and music in the streets - and today, the fun continues!!

Yesterday we went to the Picasso museum - amazing to see the volume of his work, plus from all his different periods in one building.














Spent a couple of hours there, then biked (once again, a bike friendly city - dedicated bike lines either on the side of the road or on the side of the very wide foot-paths) over to the 'Sagrada Familia' - the Gaudi designed cathedral which has been under construction for over 100 years. His idea was that it would be filled with light, rather than the oppressive dark shadows that usually accompany religeous places and practices.




















Today is our last day here - we plan to have an unplanned day! We'll get bikes and go exploring and stop when something interests us.

Tomorrow - we move on to Nimes.

Toulouse/Barcelona

Toulouse was great - a working city but lots of amazing architecture and gardens etc. We managed to arrive in the middle of a festival and most of the museums and galleries were free - ended up going to about 5, including a clock exhibition with all kinds of table clocks and time pieces dating back to the 16th century. There was a velibe station practically outside the hotel and lots more around the city, so once again biking around was easy - there were bike lanes everywhere.

We also had a little cruise on the river Garronne one day which was fun!

Barcelona

We caught the train from Toulouse to Barcelona - had a wee stop in Nabonne for a couple of hours - then crossed the Pyrenese and the border into Spain.

Barcelona is amazing!! Very warm too - about 30 today. It is huge!! amazing architecture and lots of art. We got the tourist bus around to see all the sights and tomorrow will go to the national museum and gaudi's church 'sagrada familia', plus wander around a bit and check out anything else that takes our interest.

For Friday we are planning the Picasso museum and a bike ride through the gardens - I'm keen to check out some shops too!!

Paris - here we finally are

What a trip - we left Wgtn at 1.45pm Monday, had 3 hours in Ak and stopped for an hour in a transit lounge in Melbourne. After a 14 hour flight from Melbourne we arrived in Dubai at 5.30am, to a temperature of 33 degrees. At 5.30 in the morning!!

We spent three hours in Dubai airport enjoying the air conditioning, before another 7 hour flight brought us to Paris at 1.30pm.

The ‘city of light’ is currently a city of strikes. Train disruption meant our expected 45 min train ride from the airport to the left bank took us 3 hours!!! But never mind.

Despite everything ever heard, we are finding the people of Paris are willing to be quite helpful.

The apartment is as small as I expected - possibly a wee bit tattier - but such a great spot. One minute walk to great cafe, bakery, crepery - and 2 mins to the Luxembourg gardens.

Paris is fantastic - a bit of rain, but warm. So much to see and do, and with Dan with us at the moment we are out and about from early until late.

Yesterday we saw the sights from the tourist bus, which is great for getting an overview of things. We jumped off at the arc de triomph, champs d'elise, eiffel tower and the louvre.

Stopped for a glass of wine and a something to eat, then rode bikes - we were supposed to be going to the eiffel tower to see the city by night, but didn’t quite make it as we went around in circles instead. C'est la vie!! We saw it the following night instead.

Bordeaux

After a quick visit to England to visit family, we had a couple of lovely days in Bordeaux - where we did lots of walking and biking. The city is brilliant for bikes with cycle lanes everywhere and I felt much safer than in Paris!! Also, along the riverside there are very wide boulevards and gardens, both well used by people promenading, rollerblading and cycling. We had a picnic in one of the gardens there one evening.

Our hotel room was quite good, with a separate toilet and bathroom, and was probably the same size as our whole Paris apartment!!

Today, Saturday 18, we got the train to Toulouse at 12.30 and arrived just after 3pm - it seems very different to Bordeaux - less beautiful and a bit more of a real working city - but still heaps of history of course. We look forward to exploring!