Barcelona Day 1

After getting approval from the hotel we're checking into NEXT friday to hold our bags, Sarah and I set off for our trip to Barcelona with only carry on bags! We took the Gatwick Express to the airport which is only 30 minutes and soon arrived in the midst of the biggest queue yet for check-in!

One hour and 35 minutes later, plus one hour time difference - we stepped off the plane into the quietest airport we've ever seen. No people, no staff - nothing. We managed to recognise customs by the empty tables under the green sign - nothing to delcare. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had something to declare as there were no staff to check!!

We got to the taxi rank and spotted the mother/daughter combo who were sitting in front of us on the plane. The whole time there, the mother had been telling anyone who would listen that her daughter was learning Spanish at school and was here to try it out. That seemed encouraging - they were clearly english and with her daughters Spanish, I thought they may be able to help us out. Ummm, no, sullen daughter did not speak a word of Spanish to the taxi driver but I weakened and asked if they would like to share a cab. We all got in and mum continued to rabbit on about how Rosie could speak Spanish and Rosie sat quietly without smiling in the front of the cab. She did manage to say to her mum as she was getting out of the cab that she was keen to practice her Spanish! I'm not sure what she was waiting for??!

We checked into the hotel and because I'm a mean mum I forced Sarah to get the Metro into town (3 stops). I must say that the Metro in every city has been far easier to navigate than our trains would be for a visitor. The Spanish ones have little lights on the metro map inside the train to tell you what station you're up to. This has two benefits, you know when to get off and as soon as you step on the train you know you're going the right way!

We arrived at the centre of town - Placa de Castalunya and found ourselves in the middle of the loveliest meeting place. Two massive fountains, lots of seating and all the pigeons that have moved from Trafalgar Square!! Like mad tourists, we bought bird seed (not illegal here) and proceeded to scare ourselves silly by feeding the very hungry pigeons. All seemed fine until some littler kids decided to chase the pigeons, now they're not stupid (the pigeons I mean) and they fly just high enough to get away, but not so high that they had to flap their wings too much. The result of this was about a hundred pigeons flying directly for our heads. To quote Nic & E's blog - we made poop in our pants!!

The next day we followed tradition and bought a hop on-hop off bus tour to familiarise ourselves with Barcelona. Lots to see and our first glimpse of Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi hotspots! More exploring tomorrow, no pickpockets yet!