Hola Barcelona!

On Sunday morning we went for a walk to Parc De La Ciutadel. It was just gorgeous. We are getting a renewed appreciation for great parks. This one has lot of history including an old fortress, an amazing monument and a fountain designed by the renowned architect and artisan Gaudi while he was still a student. It also has a gorgeous little lake with rowboats for hire.

We walked around the Old Town area, eventually ending up in Port Vell

for a paella lunch and strolling along the beach.

In the evening we went out for a meal with some of the Topdeck group members we got along especially well with – Jody, Michelle, Vim and Quinn. It was a great group of people and we were sad to have to say goodbye to them (they continue on after two nights but we stay on in Barcelona for almost a week) but it was great to farewell with traditional tapas and great big glasses of sangria. What a fun night!

Monday morning came and the group left, but we moved to our new accommodation right on Las Ramblas. We set ourselves the task of walking there rather than taking the metro or a taxi, to get a little air, sun and exercise. I must say, buying packs with wheels was the best decision we could have made at times like these. It took close to two hours but we felt it made up for some of our culinary sins and boy am I getting brown! I did remember to put on some sunscreen though – walking on the beach the first day taught me that the Spanish sun has more sting than up north!

We noticed some great things about the beaches here.
• They have free gyms on the sand
• They have umbrellas and deck chairs for hire everywhere
• They have kids play equipment on the sand
• They have bars with reasonably priced cocktails on the sand!

For lunch we got an avocado salad and some fabulous fish soup. It had different varieties of fish, prawns, squid and a lovely lightly spiced tomatoey broth. It felt like really authentic Spanish food. After checking into our accommodation we walked up Las Ramblas to Plac de Catalunya, went to view the Casa Battlo (another famed example of Gaudi architecture) and went shopping. I went a bit mad and bought two dresses though I said I would only buy one on this trip. The fashion here is wild – so colourful and garish!

I have also been surprised by how much leg the women show here, but my purchases are nowhere near as short as what I have seen – they are near the knee. People are very liberal and open minded here – it is not uncommon to see nudity on the beach, and women much larger than myself walk, swim, sunbathe and even play beach volleyball in skimpy bikinis. Definitely not my style, but wow, good on them for their body confidence! We spent the afternoon writing postcards home and enjoying some fruit from the gorgeous local markets. Dinner was also market goods – chorizo, salad and vegetables.

The accommodation is nice and we have Laurent and his friend Pierre to thank for helping us get it organized. We have an amazing view of Las Ramblas with all the sounds and smells of the restaurants and bubbly life out there. The apartment has shared use of a kitchen and dining room and we have been cooking up a storm.

On Tuesday we went to the Museum of Erotic Art. I know it sounds quite seedy but there was some beautiful art there. Some tack too of course. I thought the older style sketches with tame risqué images were rather cute. Obviously we don’t have any photos to share from there though! Next we went to Parc Guell, another haven for the work of Gaudi. It was a hot uphill walk but very beautiful and the views were stunning.

Incredibly we bumped into the only other person from the tour to depart at Barcelona and arranged to meet for dinner after a cocktail on the beach. We had tapas again but at a seafood restaurant at Port Vell this time. Cuttlefish, cod croquettes, camembert with red fruit sauce, mussels, the best octopus I’ve ever tasted, chorizo.. it was all amazing. Except for the snails. We had the Spanish version of escargot and although we loved them in France these were just not the same. They were very… rare. We couldn’t eat more than a couple. Our advice is to have them in Paris where they are drowning in butter and garlic and cooked to the softest possible consistency! We forgot to take photos from this dinner as well – we were chatting and having too much fun! We got to say our goodbyes again to Vim though, hopefully we will see him in the future when we eventually travel to the USA.

On Wednesday we decided to try to cool down the spending. We went to see one exhibition – the Picasso museum, and got in with an under 25’s discount. Always ask in Europe, it can often save you money if you are what they classify as a youth! On the way back we got to walk through tiny alleys full of fantastic shops, and passed by the cathedral. We got food for the day at the St Josep Bouqueria markets again. They are just so beautiful. No wonder the Spanish are so healthy and attractive – as well as eating lots of seafood and tomato based dishes we have noticed that the most popular snack is not crisps as in England, or pastries as in France, but fresh cut fruit. They also sell far more juice and particularly bottled water than any other soft drink. We loaded up with zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes, mussels, strawberries and mangos. I love this market! It is so colourful and exciting.

In the evening we met up with Laurent and Olivia for a spectacular meal in a restaurant just off Las Ramblas. They also took us to some very cool clubs. It was a brilliant night and so great to hang out with them. With the end to our Barcelona stay looming we felt very sad to say goodbye. They were terrific, fun company and it was so kind and generous of Laurent to take us to dinner.

Thursday was our last full day in Barcelona. We had intended to go to the beach but we finally saw some rain in Spain! A relief because the last day or so had been very sticky and humid, a nasty change after the lovely dry heat we had had to begin with. In the end we just had a nice chilled out day - sleeping in, watching a bit of Seinfeld, wandering up and down Las Ramblas one last time, brushing up on a bit of Italian for the next part of the trip, sending off last minute confirmation emails and packing our bags. For our last meal in Spain we cooked up a feast of mussels with tomato, zucchini and mushroom sauce, bread, salad, garlic potatoes and a nice bottle of red wine that we purchased in Andorra. Here is our table, with Las Ramblas just outside!

Onward Southward

From Carcassone we headed south to the tiny country of Andorra where they have virtually no taxes, to do some duty free shopping. Andorra is great for skiing in the winter but in the summer their tourist trade relies on hikers and shoppers. We did get some very cheap wine and a bottle of ‘Crema Catalana’ but really the best thing about the stop here was the incredible views. Driving through the south of France was just wonderful – there are fields and fields of sunflowers and wheat, old farmhouses and cottages. It was just so picturesque, and just when it seemed the landscape couldn’t get any prettier we headed up into the magnificent Pyrenees mountains. I thought I might burst into The Sound of Music!


From Andorra we made our way to Barcelona. We did a bus tour to see a few of the sights and get our bearings around the city, and had a walk around the immense cathedral 'Sagrada Familia', the life’s work of Antonio Gaudi which is still under construction after 100 years. Gaudi once said “My client is in no hurry”.


After a stop off to admire the great views from Montjuic we checked into our lovely hotel at Lacuna. It wasn’t in the nicest area but it was more luxurious than the other places we had stayed – brand new and ultra modern. We could see the sea from our window too. That night a Catalan meal was provided which included rich sausage and the most garlicky white beans ever. They were particularly yummy. We went to a fabulous flamenco show and drank sangria while we watched the dancing and singing, then moved on to the small clubs down at Barcelonetta and Port Olympia.

Paris to Bordeaux via Chateau Chambord and Bordeaux to Carcassone

On Thursday our group left early for the long drive to Bordeaux. Our first stop was in the Loire Valley, an area well known for the chateaus. We visited the beautiful Chateau Chambord, after which the sweet blackberry liquer was named. It was built as a magnificent hunting lodge for a French king. It was great but I liked Arundel Castle better. We had lunch in the local town and then continued on to Bordeaux.


One of the things I loved about the scenery was the fields and fields of sunflowers. I couldn’t get a photo, but Raini I thought of you. In the evening we checked in to Hotel de la Faisan and had dinner at a local restaurant. Afterwards we hung out with some people from the tour which was really nice. The city of Bordeaux is far more built up than I expected, and pretty, though not as beautiful as Paris!


On Friday we headed into wine country. We went to an amazing vineyard dating back to the 1600’s. They believe that the main winemaking building and its cellars were built and manned by monks making wine for mass in a local abbey. The chateau has been on the property since the 1700’s and the family that now owns the land and makes the wines has been living in it since the 1800’s. There are 35 hectares of vines, 100 hectares of land. We got to taste three different wines and were shown around the property by a very informative and charming guide. The winery is run by a woman, very unusual for France apparently. This was such a highlight for me – we really love wine (as is obvious considering we were married in a winery!), and this section of the tour was really the final deciding factor in choosing how to get from Paris to Barcelona.


Onwards to Caracassone and its amazing medieval walled city. Our hotel was outside the city walls, but the nicest we had stayed in so far. It was very old and a little spooky but also quite grand. It had stone staircases and very artsy décor. For dinner we had what we agreed was the best buffet we have ever had which included various seafoods, duck al’orange, great salads and a variety of fresh and yummy desserts. Afterwards we went in to the walled city of Carcassone. It was stunning. The place feels surreal, almost like a movie set. It is all little cobblestone alleys, old pubs, turrets and towers, enclosed gardens and yet amongst it all are fantastic little jewellery boutiques, clothing shops, cocktail bars and so on. We didn’t want to leave. As the sun went down the walls and turrets lit up. It was absolutely glorious.

Paris Days 3 and 4

On Tuesday we queued up for several hours in the sun for a half hour walk underground. It wasn’t so bad though – we met some nice Australians in the line and chatted for ages. When we finally got in, it was worth the wait. The route underground in question was the catacombs, a fascinating but very eerie display of human bones and skulls. They were put there in this manner during a time of disease and unsanitary conditions when they were removed from the cemetery. In later years Kings used to hold wild parties down there in this bizarre, macarbre and rather grotesque setting. The inscription above the door reads ‘Stop! You are entering the empire of death!’


We had a late picnic lunch and then joined our Topdeck group for our first tour – ‘The Tapas Trail’. We all went into the Latin Quarter and David and I found a nice placeto have some wine. I had real French onion soup which was nothing like I expected but really tasty. The onion was very chunky, the broth was more tart than salty, and the top had a crust of soggy bread and cheese. David had mussels in white wine again which were wonderful, and we shared some beef bourginon. Afterwards we had an amazing City Lights tour with the tour bus. We got to see sights we had not had time for such as the Grande Palais, the Champs Elysees, the obelisk and many statues. We also stopped off for the best view of the Eiffel tower by night, across the river.


On Wednesday we went to the Louvre. If you intend to go, make sure you do not enter via the main entrance under the glass pyramid, as you will queue for hours. Instead go in via either one of the wings near the arch, or through the ‘Carosel’ – a complex underneath with shops, a cloak room and some restaurants. We went through the Carosel and it saved us a good hour or two. The Louvre was amazing – it took us about 5 hours to get through it all. I was particularly taken with the antiquities, especially Assyrian and Egyptian. David was most fond of French paintings, especially from the Renaissance.


After the Louvre we walked to Pont D’Alma and went on a river cruise with the oldest river boat company in Paris, Bateaux Mouches. It was beautiful and romantic, not to mention a nice opportunity to rest our weary feet!


Afterwards we met our tour group again for a massive picnic in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. We had not intended to go up because of the huge queues and extra cost, but standing so close to it we decided to just do it. The queue wasn’t actually too bad and the price was not outrageous. As we went up the tower the sun was going down and we got to see the city light up. It was absolutely amazing.

Je regrette, Je ne parle pas Francais!

Day two in Paris – Monday. The difference is phenomenal, yesterday the streets were empty and everything closed (except for the park where we found the residents of half of the city!) and today the place has been buzzing. Our morning started with a wonderful pain-au-chocolat and a walk to Villiers metro. We headed to Pigalle, a more rough and ready area of the city with lots of red light locales and cinemas, to walk to Montmartre. Montmartre has two sides to it – one more Pigalle-like and gritty, (in fact some hotels advertise themselves as being in Montmartre when they are actually in the more shady area of Pigalle) and the other area being more upmarket and expensive but particularly beautiful. Once again we used an Eyewitness Travel guide to do a planned walk with notes on historically and architecturally interesting features. David’s grandfather lent it to us and it has been invaluable – it has maps, interesting features, restaurant reviews, language, and a display of all the metro lines. Amongst other sights we saw Sacre Couer


The houses of Van Gogh and Picasso (amongst several other artists, musicians and eccentrics),



The local cabaret in Lapin


and incredible views.

The walk took us right down to the Moulin Rouge.


At this stage we were starving so we found ourselves a nice café and bought lunch. We shared veal escalopes with mushrooms and a salad with slices of smoked duck breast and fois gras.


Back on the metro and we hopped off at ‘Invalides’, where the military museum stands on the other side of the River Seine. Here I am in front of the dome – Napoleon’s tomb.

We then walked to the Eiffel Tower. This is my favourite photo!


That evening we went for a really special dinner in the Latin Quarter. First we stopped off to see Notre Dame.


Then we found a little restaurant in the lanes of the St Michel area. We were very adventurous! The snails were delicious, the mussels gorgeous, the fondue wonderful. I thought the frogs legs tasted like slightly stringier chicken and were too much effort to fiddle with for such a tiny amount of meat!

It was such a romantic night – we went down and listened to musicians playing by the River Seine and drank wine.

Bonjour Paris

Our first day in Paris was quite relaxed. Early in the morning Rob and Ed saw us off to King’s Cross St Pancras station and we caught the Eurostar to Gare Du Nord. It took less than 3 hours and we slept most of the way which was brilliant. It felt like 20 minutes between London and Paris which was quite surreal. We caught the metro – not as polished as the tube in London but quick and easy to use. Our hotel is near Villiers but the less pretty end. I was a little bit disappointed because the room is extremely tiny and pretty daggy (the bed is a sofa bed!) but I cheered up when David showed me that we can see the top of the Eiffel Tower from our window. It is also close to the Metro and has everything we need, including a little kitchenette. We walked to Parc Monceau which was absolutely beautiful and truly packed! I have never seen so many people in a park! Sunbathers, families, lots of couples kissing and picnicking… When we first arrived I noted how dead the city was on a Sunday afternoon, but we found everyone – it seemed the whole city was at Parc Monceau. We bought a Panini and a crepe to eat, and used a guide book to take a planned walk with historical and architectural notes around the area. It was great! The city really is beautiful, and we haven’t even been to the centre of it yet. We then walked all the way to the Arc de Triumph. We took photos, kissed beneath the arch, and consulted the book for more historical details. On our way home we found the one shop in the city that seemed to be open on a Sunday, and bought some bread, soup, raspberry beer, wine and a huge camembert.

FACTS!

Sorry about the huge pictures from the last post. It just took so long to upload them that when I realised how big they were it was too late to change them - I had been sitting in a wifi cafe with only one drink uploading for about an hour! Here is a picture free entry.

Random Facts About England
- The chips are amazing. But of course they are called crisps. They come in every different flavor – prawn cocktail, worcestor sauce, Japanese teriyaki chicken, beetroot, salt and apple cider vinegar, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Dutch edam cheese… I’m not normally a potato chip eater but these are intriguing!
- London fashion is slightly different from the rest of Europe. There is more emphasis on contrast and mismatching: spots, check and stripes, soft florals with lace and leather and boots, punk hair with thick ‘nerd’ glasses, graffiti t-shirts with cutesy bow covered overall dresses. The haircuts and colours are also quite severe and very trendy.
- Stay on the right side of the escalator or get mowed down!
- The tube is super easy and super effective, with lines crossing over every where so you can change wherever you like rather than travelling for ages in the wrong direction to get to one ‘central’ station. However it is also expensive.
- Watercress is in everything and it tastes wonderful.
- You can drink beer on the street if you want to, it is legal.
- Drinks only come in pints or halves (unless you’re talking wine or spirits obviously)
- Cider is very popular and not just apple. You can get mixed fruit or berry cider, or my favourite which is pear.
- The water is very hard which means you have to use much more soap and shampoo to get any lather, and in my opinion the water tastes bad so I bought it in bottles.
- People have carpet in their bathrooms.
- To get the water to start you often have to use a crank or a button for the shower and for flushing the toilet, particularly in older style houses.

London: Sickness Free and Well Lush (A huge entry covering Thursday , Friday and Saturday)

Jacqui that title is for you as I know you love it. People really do say ‘well’ for ‘very’ though. Well fab, well hot, well good, well late, etc etc. As is obvious from my last post, our first day was well bad. Being ill really ate into our time and we had to miss visits we had intended to organise (Sorry Erin and Dale!), as well as the special dinner with Rob and Sandy. There wasn’t much we could do but make the most of the time we had left, and thankfully the bug or whatever it was that I had was gone by the morning. We caught the tube to Knightsbridge and walked through Harrods. It was incredible. Shop dressing there is not just marketing products but creating works of art. Here is a dress made of pegs.


There were a lot of madly expensive items – high end fashion, designer bags, shoes, and even babies and children’s wear, jewellery, strange ornaments, china, a bath made from one single piece of carved crystal (about half a million pounds if you’re looking for a new bath by the way)… but our favourite areas were the amazing food halls (yellow Thai watermelon anyone? Spanish plums? Fois gras? Sea salted chocolates {trust me they work!}?), the pet fashion department (yes it was hilarious), and the fabulous toy department. It was a kid’s dream. I took a photo of myself with a life size Ben Ten to show the kids back at work.


We then walked through the eastern side of Hyde Park. It is so big you would need most of a day to really see all of the park. Here is David by a lake that was created for a queen (I can’t remember which!).


Next was Top Shop, M&S, H&M, Primark and a bunch of other English clothing shops to browse through over towards Bond Street. David got some nice linen trousers and a really funky t-shirt, and I got a skirt, some luminous turquoise eyeliner and some more underwear as I forgot to pack some items that I wanted! Here I am on my way to shopping heaven- the marble arch just before Oxford St.


After figuring out which Pret A Manger was Ed’s work (they are everywhere here!) we met up and grabbed a quick lunch together. They really do great sandwiches and salads, and they also sell fizzy elderflower, a drink I became very fond of in England.
As an aside, I hope Pret branches out to Australia. They have very fresh food, they do a lot of work for charity and even allow staff to take time for helping the homeless whom they also distribute their leftovers to each day, they serve healthy snacks like fruit and yoghurt and nut/seed slices and porridge, and they seem to treat their staff well – company parties sound amazing hired dodgem cars and everything!
Anyway, enough about the sandwich shop… we met up with Ed and took a long walk over to the Tate Gallery. The Tate exhibits modern art and changes regularly, a bit like the MCA in Circular Quay but bigger and with more of the particularly famous artists of the last hundred years in amongst the contemporary works – for example, Andy Warhol, Picasso, Lichtenstein, Dali. It was wonderful and we took our time to walk through. It is now free to attend and they no longer actively prevent people taking photos. We didn’t take any though – you could find a better quality image on google, and those who were snapping away were barely bothering to look at the artwork in the flesh! So we don’t have any Tate photos for you, but here we are on the walk over to it.


We went home to Rob and Sandy, who made us a beautiful huge salad for dinner and we stayed up for a while chatting with the two of them. It was really nice to hang out together and catch up.

On Friday morning David and I caught the tube again, this time to Green Park. We walked to Buckingham Palace….


And through St James’ Park (an immediate favourite) and past the Horse Guard…


To Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, via Wesminster Abbey…


And over the bridge to the London Eye.


It was truly spectacular. The Eye is pricey and the lines can be long (we waited about an hour, the ‘flight’ is half an hour) but we really felt it was definitely worth it. What an experience! Afterward Ed took us to Covent Gardens. As our wedding gift he bought us lunch and drinks and took us to see some excellent street theatre. We did a bit of shopping in the area and got some cool thank you gifts for Rob and Sandy too.


For dinner Sandy made us some more traditional English food (bangers and mash with caramelized onions!). We had a shot of Polish vodka with gold leaf in it and then Ed, David and I hit the town.


First was Camden Town for a drink in a goth/punk pub which was actually really laidback and cool. Excuse my stupid squinty face, this is the only photo I have that shows where we were (and also shows my new skirt!). I look like I was three sheets to the wind but I was actually not!

Check out my crazy club make up!


Then we caught a (double decker!) bus to Farringdon, to a very cool nightclub called Fabric. The music was so loud I thought I was going to go deaf, and generally the people there were cooler than cool, but we had a really great time and Ed showed us his favourite rooms with different kinds of music – Fabric has several levels and lots of different bars!




On Saturday we simply had to have a sleep in. Two days of walking for about 5 hours each time, followed by dancing for half the night was just too much. In the afternoon we went to Camden Markets though, and it was amazing! The amount of different foods you can get is incredible, you can eat down by the water and shop all day. The markets are not in one area as I had thought, but all over town. I bought some crazy rainbow hair ties and tights with feathers printed all over them. I was very tempted to buy a gorgeous little vintage design dress but the price of 95 pounds stopped me. Back with Rob and Sandy we all went out for dinner at a brilliant Indian restaurant. Rob and Sandy were so generous and bought us a huge variety of delicious curries, followed by brandies back home. It was a lovely end to our stay with them.