Barcelona neighbours

What with the clock change to summer time and a 7.00 am flight, there was only time for one hour's sleep before the taxi arrived to go to the airport. Once again, Dublin Airport did its best to get things off to a bad start with its ugliness and inefficiency, but a few gins and a good breakfast on board compensated to some extent at least. Barcelona didn't exactly outdo home, since nobody told us not to get the train in to the city and it took two hours for a journey which would have taken half an hour at most by taxi. But it was still early enough in the day by the time we got the keys of the apartment we'd booked, which turned out to be in a very convenient part of the city on a narrow street with a church right across from us and a never-ending stream of people- and churchbell- and traffic-noise. A quick ramble around the immediate area we were staying in and a couple of refreshing beers led on to what was intended to be a short siesta but turned into a few hours' sleep before we headed to Sitges to meet up with friends who recently bought a place there.

Our overnight hosts were there to meet us at the railway station, brought us to their place for a welcoming glass of bubbly, introduced us to a pleasant local restaurant and then brought us to far too many pubs afterwards. By the time the night ended we were glad we'd had that afternoon siesta.

NOTE: This shot comes courtesy of Carl, whose photo efforts on this first day were much better than mine.