Day 1 (Flight and Barcelona)

Thursday 21 June:

Off we go!  We boarded our flight from Durban to JHB after saying teary good-byes to Jackie-the-dog (that was me! Jackie was cool with it ;-) ) Rox and Cheryl.  I always have such mixed feelings when we leave for an overseas holiday - excitement that the adventure is finally here, terror over the upcoming flights and sadness about the people and pets we are leaving behind... This time was a bit worse than usual with Dad and Wendy being so ill the week we left. 

Our flight from Durban to Jo'burg was not all that bad and it wasn't long before we were sitting in the Keg at Oliver Tambo airport having a very early supper.  I got the holiday off to a rather shaky start by first trying to walk out of a door that wouldn't open - in my defence it was clearly marked Exit - then trying to walk into the Staff Only area and finally wandering halfway into the Mens toilets...all this after only one Peroni.....  Having had to rescue me 3 times in as many minutes, Paula was beginning to look very nervous!  Our supper was really nice and we were happy and relaxed by the end of it...until we saw the monumental queues at passport control.  Oh my goodness, it was ridiculous.  There were eventually people pushing through the queues because they were on the verge of missing their flights.  Initially they had only 2 desks open, with this loooong snake of people winding round and round.  An absolute disgrace and a very poor show from a tourism point of view. Aaaanyhow, we eventually got through it and made our way to our boarding gate. 

After the usual sit-around we were on the plane at last.  We had really nice seats and fortunately No Screaming Brats!  I can honestly say that the flight from Jo'burg to London was the best flight I have ever been on.  Take off was sooo smooth, there was barely any turbulence at all and the landing was hardly noticeable.  If only they could all be like that!  Only down-side was that we didn't sleep well at all - no surprises there though!

Friday 22 June:

Our flight landed about 15 minutes earlier than expected, but according to the men this was completely off-set by Paula and I taking 15 FULL minutes in the bathroom after we landed.  Tut, tut!
Hey a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, especially when said girl hasn't brushed her teeth or her hair or washed in nearly 24 hours!

We made our way through passport control, baggage collection and then we realised that there was a possibility that we could in fact make our early flight (the one we had assumed we wouldn't make because of hightened security around the time of the London Olympics) We made our way to the Heathrow Express station to catch the train to Terminal 5 and that all went very smoothly and it wasn't long before we were checked in and ready for our flight.  Our flight was a bit delayed, but we eventually got going and had a nice smooth flight to Barcelona.  A guy proposed to his girl-friend on the flight, which was really sweet.  The approach in to Barcelona was really beautiful, we came in over the sea and got a good look at the port, we think we may have seen our cruise ship.  We landed at 1pm and were met by a man in a suit - you all know how I looove my men in suits who make the transit from airport to hotel with all our baggage an absolute breeze!  Yes please!

We are staying at the Hotel Jazz in central Barcelona.  A very nice hotel, small and centrally located.  We checked in without any problems and then headed out to grab some lunch at a little restaurant that sells baguettes and that's conveniently located right next door.

 
After lunch we sorted out a sim card for Grant's iphone - which wasn't as simple as it sounds!  You want to try to order a micro sim loaded with pre-paid data that will last for a full 2 weeks in Spanish, when the only words you know are "hola" and "gracias"!!  After that excitement we came back to the hotel for much needed showers and rest time.

After a short rest we headed out to explore.  We found a geocache outside the university of Barcelona and then set off towards Las Ramblas. 

The Ramblas were so much fun, it consists of a series of roads, with a large, tree-lined, pedestrian walk-ways running down the middle.  There are stalls selling all kinds of things and plenty of restaurants and bars, where you can people watch to your heart’s content. 

We ended up wandering around in the little side streets of the Gothic quarter, which was incredible.  One little lane led into another and you could get wonderfully lost, looking at all the lovely little shops and restaurants, coffee shops and bars. 

We eventually stopped at Mikel Etxea – a fantastic tapas bar on the Ramblas. 

We had fantastic tapas and Grant and I shared a jug of sangria, the atmosphere was awesome and the food and sangria went down extremely well.  We had quite a few plates of tapas, including crab pate on ciabatta, sausage (that tasted very much like boerewors!), chourico on skewers with onions, chicken wings, a salmon ciabatta, a brie one, potato and bacon thingies… oh my soul, lots of stuff and it was all very delicious indeed.

After supper we wandered some more, finding a food-market which was unfortunately closing up for the day, but we managed to buy a punnet of fresh cherries to eat on the way home. 

We made a quick dash into Starbucks for a coffee and wee break and then headed up to Plaça de Catalunya where we found a geocache. 

It was then time to get into a taxi and make our way to the Magic Fountains of Montjuic.  What a crazy taxi ride!  This driver was very fond of his hooter and there was no mucking around, he was getting us to the fountains as quickly as possible and by the most direct route…. Shew!  The ride was sooo worth it though, because the fountains were beautiful!  The main fountain moved in time to music and was lit with coloured lights, it was quite, quite spectacular. 

The whole place was beautiful, with lots of different fountains. 

There were masses of people there, which added to the atmosphere.  Really amazing.  We stayed for much longer than anticipated and then caught a taxi, with a much slower and downright sullen driver, back to the hotel and some much-needed sleep.