Barcelona Day 3 - Beaches, Guinness and SILENCE PLEASE!

I haven't described our accomodation yet. We stayed in 'apartments', which basically means that we had our own bedroom, but that the kitchen, toilets, showers and dining room were shared. Can't be beaten on price, and the toilets and showers were never being used when we needed them.

Due to the nature of the arrangement they ask for SILENCE between 10pm and 8am....I'm assuming what they mean is 'please be quiet for the sake of others', but you know these continental types, big on overstatement. Normally this would be easy peasy, I'm always happy to comply with the rules, and Nicki and I were hardly likely to be up partying into the wee hours.

However, for somewhere demanding 'SILENCE' they seem to have gone to the ends of the earth to make everything as noisy as possible. The very nature of the building meant that even the slightest sounds travelled, large vacuous spaces. The floors were tile or laminate, the doors slammed without any encouragement whatsoever, you really had to make some effort to close the door without making a noise. The locks on the doors were of the kind where you turn a little wheel mechanism and a bolt slides into place, it sounded like you were trying to crack a Wall Street safe with a sledgehammer.

On top of this, our room was off of the kitchen, so every morning we were woken up at whatever mad time one of our neighbours decided they wanted breakfast or a cup of tea. It wasn't their fault, people who had only just arrived didn't even realise our room was a room. The kitchen was also handily equipped with marble worksurfaces....extra good for clattering around with crockery.

This morning in particular we were woken by a very loud conversation between 2 50-something Scottish ladies who clearly didn't enjoy laying in. Nicki grumpily opened the door and asked if they'd PLEASE be a bit quieter, and the shocked ladies complied immediately, but the damage was done, we were up.

We bimbled down to the coast today, coming from London it's quite a nice experience to stay in a city that has a beach! We arrived firstly at the port, have you ever noticed how the boats all look so pretty bobbing around in the harbour, but as soon as you try and take a picture all you seem to end up with is a heaving mess of sails and masts that don't look very aesthetic at all!?

We MAY have had some Hagen Daas, but I shan't implicate us directly....you have no evidence!

Ahem....so we had a wander down the beach and a little paddle in the sea. At various intervals we passed those wonderful contraptions.....showers that they seem to have installed on all continental beaches. They haven't quite caught on in most british resorts I've visited, I'm sure they just need a couple more decades. Then....a sight to behold. Plonked down on the edge of one of these little shower platforms was a portly gentleman reading a paper. He was in his 60's I'd guess, wearing nothing but a little pair of speedo's and baring an inordinate amount of crack. None of this would have been remarkable in itself, you see it at every beach resort. What was remarkable was the shade of the chap, he had clearly spent FAR too much time in the sun. So long in fact that, in Nicki's words, he had 'begun to resemble a person of another race', I believe my words were 'one giant malignant melanoma'. In fact, he just looked filthy, as if he's been rolling in mud.

Scary. Clearly the warnings have been passing him by and he's still slathering on the cooking oil.

When the beach ended we visited the Parc de Ciutadella which houses Barcelona Zoo. It was lovely in there, the first thing we came across was the boating lake, then a little way down the path we found the randomly placed 'Mamuth' a large stone mammoth. I'm unsure of the provenance or purpose of this mammoth, but I shall endeavour to find out as I know you're on the edge of your seats. Then you walk around the corner and are faced with the 'Cascada'. This was built for the 1888 Universal Exhibition. It's a Triumphal arch with fountains and waterfalls, decorated with romanesque figures, and what appear to be griffin/s (plural for griffin??). It's gorgeous and very impressive. So impressive that we decided to take a pew at the café and admire it over an Estrella.





Such hard work....sigh.

A wrong turn on the way home takes us past the Arc de Triomf which was cool, we probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise!

The afternoon took us to La Rambla where we'd walked past La Bougeria on a couple of occasions. Neither Nicki nor I can resist a market. It turned out to be a huge food market, and despite the fact that we weren't going to buy anything we had to have a look around. The sheer quantity and variety of fruit, veg, chocolates, cheeses, meats, shellfish and fish on offer was mind-boggling. The shellfish was so fresh that the langoustines were still wriggling.

I really really really wish we had something like that around where I live. I'd be as round as a beachball though....so maybe it's just as well.

Must admit, I didn't care for the tripe or lamb brains....but there's no accounting for taste.

After some food back at the apartment we hit the typical British hangout abroad.....the Irish Bar. Nom nom Guinness, I'd been gagging for one since we'd first walked past the bar on the way to the Cathedral. It was lovely lovely, but marred ever so slightly by the US dick behind us who was on leave from duty in Iraq. He worked in admin and was talking about how he got to stay in an office all the day whereas your 'stupid, average Jo infantryman had to go out and get shot' and 'if you ask me, we're the ones who do all the real work'.

I had to leave before I hit him and slapped the two mental friends hanging off his every word.

We headed to H3 just across the road from our apartments and indulged in the Estrella and more chorizo and Patatas Bravas......nom!!!

Then we crept back to the apartments in complete and utter obedient silence.