La Pedrera

As we only had one day in Barcelona we had to try and fit in as much as possible.

After breakfast we walked from our hotel, for almost an hour, towards the Sagrada Familia so that we could find the office of the tour company where we needed to be at 3pm. Then we got on the city tour bus which took over 2 hours to take us around the eastern part. I managed to get this photograph of the roof of the house from the top deck of the bus.

Next we had an hour to get some lunch before joining the Sagrada tour which, as well as the church, included going to Park Güell and seeing the outside of La Pedera and Casa Batllo. Unfortunately we were not very far into the tour when Guy began to feel feint and needed to sit down for half an hour. Of course by the time he felt OK the tour group had moved on and we couldn't find them again! At least we got to see the inside of the church.

After a while we made our way back to the tour office and explained what had happened. A very kind young lady phoned the tour guide then told us to follow her - which we did at a very fast pace - to a spot where the bus with the tour group on it would pick us up to continue the tour to the park etc.

By the time the tour finished it was 7.30pm and we were ready for a meal. We quickly found a tapas bar. Once fortified we then walked down La Rambla to the harbour and back to our hotel. By the time we got to bed we had walked 8 miles!

We are impressed with how helpful people were from the lady in the tour office to the man who made us a special sandwich for our lunch. We would have bought two of his ready-made salad rolls but noticed they all had cheese in them. When we explained that we couldn't eat cheese he offered to make us up two sandwiches with ham and salad but no cheese. He was the only person in the small shop and managed to do this while serving other customers. Of course we gave him a good tip.

Obviously we need to come back to Barcelona with enough time to see everything- even two days wouldn't have been enough.

(Back blipping from Valencia as there was no wifi on the train)