Planes, trains and...bikes

Assuming they have sparows in Scotland we were up before they started their morning constitution. An extremely complicated juggling of getting each suitcase under the allowed limit by the short hop airline was pointless as it turned out as they combined both together in their calculations. This was all worked through at the airport at 4:30 am along with hordes of other older generation people heading off for the warmer climbs now that school has started. Strange to see all these people flying and no kids amougnst them. They'd all had their fun in the past two months and now the non-attached are taking advantage of the shoulder season rates and lack of constant hubdrub that accompanies that genre.

Budget we paid and budget we got. Never been so cramped for 3 long hours as this flight kindly supplied by the Irish provided. Admittedly their check-in (self run) was very efficient. Longer than the 3 hours in the tightly packed seats would have required a medical recovery team at arrivals in order to a avoid law suits. Arriving in a new country with no idea of the language apart from 16 episodes of Faulty Towers can be a bit daunting. However we stumbled on through. Found the train station, bought the tickets and got on board the fast loco to the centre of town. No map. No internet and only vague idea of where to go. Just as we started to try and use devices A prankster in the guise of busker decided to play his extremely loud piano accordion right next to our heads. Knowing the local dialogue would have resulted in a negotiation on relocation. One can only assume that because he was not rupturing their eardrums or their sensibilities the rest of the prisoners in the carriage kept encouraging him. Luckily after passing the cup he went to torment another part of the train and thus we could work our way through our own personal dilemma. Alighting in the right place we walked around in circles for a while until free local internet and an apple device provided clarity. Go to the excellently located rooms, dropped the bags in storage ( we were early) a quick refresh and then we hit the streets of Barcelona. Sort of more stumble around without any real guidance due to lack of comms with the real world (aka internet) or a quality map. Rain was threatening. It was the same band that had hounded us in Scotland. Typical...pack it in a suitcase, take it with you wherever you go. Only a rain God can do this. By the time we got back to the room to start siesta practice it was thundering and pouring down. The locals were estatic...the build up had finally ended. Maybe next year they can pay us to turn up... Anyway. We left in the rain and headed to our next adventure. An ebike tour of the town. A fair amount of stress ensued when we arrived on time at the wrong location. Clear thinking prevailed by the non-blogger and we captured a taxi to the correct square down town. Expecting some sort of fandangled contraptions to be visible we completely missed the fact that they were there patiently waiting for us. So we headed of for a fabulous 3 hours of peddling around the town gleaning some wonderful insights into the town and the history behind the place. The rain jackets purchased for Scotland but not used certainly were put to good effect today.

Details of the town are far to many to cover here, what is relevant is they are building up for their big independence day on Monday. And we'll be here for it. Memories of the Spanish Inquisition are still very strong (as are their use of soft cushions). So it should be fun. We did to their beach - exceptionally empty during to rain ( which cleared).

After the tour we hit a couple of tapas bars for Sangritas, vino etc and tasty bites that define the place. Surrounded by the old town narrow streets and all the locals hangin' around obviously enjoying themselves it was a fabulous end to a big day.