BARCELONA… BARCELONA

Weather: wet and then sunny 20º C

Yep, you guessed it, we had rain today – more about that later.

There are 2 hop-on/hop-off bus companies here (red and blue). We chose the blue company which has 3 routes – blue, red and green. Having paid the deposit (the hotels commission we think) on a discounted 2-day pass at the hotel we had a 20 minute walk to the nearest bus stop. Just as we got on the bus the skies opened. The weather forecast was for rain but not like this. It was like a tropical downpour that went on for about an hour.

The upper deck of our bus did not have a roof that could be pulled over the seating area and the downstairs was not as waterproof as it should have been. A number of people had to move away from the window seats, including David, and when the bus stopped water would pour down the stairs from the upper deck and out through one of the doors downstairs. It really was quite a waterfall. We couldn’t see much out of the windows as they kept steaming up. Within the next hour the rain had subsided to a gentle rain followed by clear sunny skies.

Needless to say we just stayed on the bus and after doing the blue circuit we did the red and green circuits thus getting an idea of distances and confirming sites we wanted to visit later. Out near the beach area we got off and had lunch – for 3 hours!! During this time we decided that since it was now such a clear day we would make our way back to one of the lookouts which required a trip on the blue rattly tram followed by another on a funicular railway.

For a city of over 1.6 million it is quite compact with high density apartment living similar to other Spanish cities we have visited. We ended up coming off the lookout on the last funicular in time to catch the last tram and then the penultimate hop-on/hop-off bus.

Once back at the hotel we met up in D&L's room for a drink and a snack to plan the next day. As we are staying on for a few days after they leave it is their choice to prioritise the sites to see during their stay here. In bed by 1245 for an earlyish start in the morning.

D&L made a comment on one of our earlier blog entries that they thought there would be an effect on the publishing of blog entries while we were together - and they were right.