20 May 2019 Cloverlea to Melbourne

We have a late night flight to Dubai, so take our time finishing packing before driving the corolla to the Warragul railway station. Louise or Chris will pick the car up from there later in the day, we hope. The first part of the train journey was fine but we slowed down considerably between Caulfield and Flinders Street stations. The Airport Shuttle bus was rapid by comparison. Even the Emirates check in queue where we got both our Dubai and Barcelona bound boarding passes moved faster than the earlier vline journey. For posterity I wish it recorded that our check in baggage weighed 13 kilograms each.

21 May 2019 Dubai to Barcelona

Our flight arrives in Dubai at 5:15 am and apparently it is already 30 degrees outside. It’s a short, driver less train ride to the appropriate terminal and our Barcelona bound flight leaves on time. There’s a long queue for immigration and passport control in Barcelona, but with all the bays staffed, the line moves faster than the recent v line train. We are advised by the Spanish official to take care in this city as there are many pick pockets in Barcelona. I think the official may have been a plant from Madrid. Much to my relief, the booking.com organised taxi (or rather, driver) is waiting for us at the the airport arrivals hall. Following a 30 minute drive we arrive at Apartamentos DV. After settling in we wander around the district and find a couple of small supermarkets as well the local Badal Metro station. The evening winds up with a light dinner and Netflix.

22 May 2019 Barcelona

After accessing Youtube to work out how to operate the electric hob in our kitchenette, we have a delicious home cooked breakfast. We then brave the Barcelona metro and later find our free walking tour guide outside the city's Cathedral. It’s then a wander around the Gothic quarter, stopping for some sangria and pintxo along the way. We are shown a frieze on the front of the Picasso Museum, from a 1950's sketch drawn on a napkin by the artist. Following the tour we wander about the city, not always lost, past the Arc de Triomf and through Estacio Franca. There are beautiful Gaudi buildings about including Casa Battilo. We then wander down La Rambla before catching the metro back home.

23 May 2019 Barcelona

It takes us a little while, but eventually we work out how to get to Mont Juic by public transport. It’s a

combination of Metro, funicular and cable car. At the top of the mountain is a fort and the views across both the city and Mediterranean are spectacular. La Sagrada and the accompanying cranes are very obvious against the smaller city buildings. Later, we walk down the hill to the 1992 Olympic site. The stadium, which is open to the public was built in 1929 for the Exposition and was

used as a refugee camp during the Spanish Civil war. We travel back into town and have paella at one of the many restaurants on La Rambla before metro’ing back to Badal. We leave the station at a different exit to usual and discover a large supermarket near by. Supplies are replenished and quickly extinguished once we get back to our rooms.

24 May 2019 Barcelona

Not only does the rain in Spain fall mostly on the plain, it also falls in Barcelona. We booked our La Sagrada de Familia visitor tickets on line for 9:45 am but arrive 20 minutes early and told to come back at the appointed time. Wandering about in the rain is no fun. Eventually the clock ticks over to the appropriate time and we are allowed to enter. The building is simply stunning and each intricate carving and coloured window is explained through the included audio guide. Some Costa Coffee is consumed following the cathedral tour as we plan our afternoon trip to Park Guell. The rain is getting a little heavier as we board the metro. Following signs to the Park, we climb stairs, ride out door escalators and battle steep paths to reach our destination. Apparently this place was originally intended to be a housing estate, but only a few were built. The raincoats get a real workout during the outdoor parts of the wander and as a result and against my better judgement, we spend more time in the shelter of souvenir shops.

25 May 2019 Barcelona

A lazy morning as we think about what we want to do today. We end up wandering up the road to Camp Nou and visit the museum and stadium. There are a huge amount of trophies won by Football Club Barcelona on display together with a photo of the first ever Spanish Club Championship team. There’s also over a century of other football club paraphernalia. Later we enjoy some tapas at a local cafe before walking back to our apartment. This is the first full day in Barcelona that we haven’t used the metro.

26 May 2019 Barcelona to Madrid

We leave Apartamentos DV at 10:00 am dragging our suitcases behind us. It’s only a few metro stops to the Estatio Sants, which has both a metro and a regional station. Eventually we find the Madrid bound train, after undergoing several security and ticket checks along the way. The train, which hits 302kph is “as smooth as silk”. The scenery alternates between barren landscape, vines or wind and solar farms. The Madrid-Atocha station is a beautiful 19^th century building. It’s a fairly straight forward walk, albeit slightly uphill from the station to our accommodation which has amongst other delights, a washing machine. Next door to the apartment is a tapas bar, which we utilise after settling in. We are very close to the centre of Madrid and as we wander about the narrow streets of the capital, we come across a number of vintage Fiats and one poor, lost Citroen. 

27 May 2019 Madrid

It’s only a short walk to Plaza Mayor where we meet our walking tour guide. Can’t see much of the Plaza because it’s closed off due to preparation for the Euro Champions League Final later in the week. Our tour guide, Irish by birth, shows us the “ugliest” church in Spain as well as the Royal Palace. We see other historical sites including where an attempted assassination of a King and Queen took place last century. After the tour we continue the wander through the palace gardens before meandering back to our apartment after a late (by Australian standards) lunch. It’s strange what you miss overseas. It took us a while, but we did eventually find and buy pimienta negra (black pepper).

28 May 2019 Madrid

Our day begins with eggs (with black pepper) and drip filtered coffee, before walking 15 minutes to the Prado Museum. We think that maybe every painting by Goya resides here, including the “black” ones. There are some Raphael’s, surprisingly a couple of David Roberts and even more surprising, no Picasso’s!!!!!!! We had arranged a visit inside the Royal Palace on line for 2:00pm, so have to leave the museum after only a few hours. Interesting that the usual online sites didn’t have any tickets for today, but the Palace site did. The interior is fancy and has some great historical documents including the abdication of King Juan Carlos. For fancy imagine a porcelain covered wall. We also check out the throne room as opposed to a throne room. Later in the day we find a largish supermarket with the best fresa (sorry, strawberries) ever and they go very well with yoghurt but less so with radlers.

29 May 2019 Madrid

Today we decide to walk to Retiro Park which is just a little past The Prado. The park is green with lots of trees, statues and a lake. There are formal areas such as the botanical gardens complete with peacocks and hens and then there are less formal parts with children’s play areas. There is also a lovely rose garden. During a break in our stroll we discover giant XXL Cornetto’s at a kiosk and I can confirm that they are good. After returning to our apartment for a cool down, we wander down to Plaza Espana to see the Cervantes monument, only to discover that it is a work site. We are having issues with our credit card, so go to plan B to book a day trip for tomorrow.