Off to Barcelona - and meeting up with Dean and Emma

Barcelona here we come…………….Thursday 12^th May

Today we were up bright and early to catch our 8am train to Barcelona.  What is fab about train travel over here is that you just need to get there in time to board the train – no security checks, no bag checks – easy peasy!

We did have a little trouble finding our seats however! We were in coach 1 as I had brought us 1^st class tickets, seats 10 to 15.  We board coach 1 and it only goes to seat 11……that is weird we thought – surely we are not in different carriages…..check the next carriage and it starts at 1 again! Might need to ask the guard at the other end of the platform I thought! Wrong! As we board the train there was a little compartment to the left – a private compartment for up to 10 people – we thought surely this can’t be us – but no, surely it can! Yep these were our seats – a wee private room just for us – perfect for the kids, they did not have to be super quiet! They were most excited! The only problem was that the view from these seats – as they were facing each other – was not as good as in the rest of the carriage! Still, that was pretty empty so Karl plopped himself down there for much of the journey! What was also cool was just as we were thinking we might head to the café carriage, a lady came in asking us if we wanted drinks or food – this is the best way to travel!   Connor was a bit disappointed that we went through the Pyrenees Mountains and not over them – but that was his only gripe!

Anyway so we had a great train journey – great views, multiple seats, plenty of leg room and we were off to Spain – life does not get much better than this! 

We arrived in Spain at 12.45pm and easily found our way to our apartment – it was about a 15 minute walk and thanks to Google maps, this was easy.  Checked in to our accommodation which was an awesome three bedroom apartment and we were off to find lunch!

One of the funniest first things to happen was that when the boys were checking out the apartment they came out excited that the bathroom not only had a shower, bath, toilet and basin but it also had a foot washer – this was pretty cool.  They could hardly believe us when we told them it was a bidet and it was actually a “butt washer” and not a “foot washer”.  Connor could hardly wait to use it – and did a bit later not realising that you could have the water warm for a much nicer experience – not freezing cold! 

 The apartment was very cool - Mercedes Heritage Apartments where we had a 3 bedroom on the 3rd floor - perfect for us.  Here is the view from our window - this is how I thought Spain would be - pink and orange buildings, balcony's, cool designs and great weather.

 Barcelona is very green with lots of trees and here is our lounge - was great.

 Anyway, enough toilet talk – back to lunch – we found a cool market and supermarket just down the road which was going to be very handy for our weeks stay – but today we wanted to sit, chill and eat and so we found a pizzeria and sat down for a delicious pizza and beer (or coke for the kids).  Great start to our stay in Barcelona.  Next we were off to the supermarket for some supplies for dinner and breakfast and of course, nibbles and beer/wine – it was then home to await Dean and Emma’s arrival.

A little while later we decided that actually we needed more beer than we had brought and so Karl and I headed back to the supermarket to increase supplies – on our way back, just as we were entering the hotel I spotted a couple of people I recognised – yay, Dean and Emma are here!!!! SO COOL!!!!

Time to take them up to the rest of the crew – over the evening there was lots of catching up about what we had all been up to over the past few months and enjoying being together and planning our time here in Barcelona.  Great times ahead – tomorrow we are off to the hop-on/hop-off Barcelona Touristic Bus and we can’t wait.