Barcelona gives a warm welcome to Blair!

We are finally in Barcelona! Glorious weather, amazing food and photo opportunities at every corner! But lets take things from the very beginning!

Our trip started with a lovely sightseeing tour of Heathrow´s taxiway were we spent 45 minutes waiting to take off and had a nice chat with Paul, our neighbour from Glasgow (Grigoria thought he was speaking Polish!). Paul and his girlfriend Michelle were not as prepered as we were for their trip so we decided to give them one of our little leaflets to use. Paul was convinced it was something we bought and was really impressed when he realised that this was something Wes and Blair made!

After two hours in the air we arrived at Barcelona airport to be greeted by the traditional hospitality of the Spanish police. Blair, and another Kiwi couple, were recognised by "Inspector Gadget" on the gate for the true criminals they were and singled out to be taken to the police station. After a stern, yet educational, talk by the nice policeman (in Spanish!) we were finally on our way!

Our hotel, Gat Xino, (pictures to follow) is really funky with a huge "kermit the frog" coloured shower!

Today we decided to walk around the Ciutat Velta area, to get a taste for the city and markets. Our first stop was the Barcelona town hall in Barri Gothic. It was an impressive building full of gargulles but not nearly as grand as La Seu, the Barcelona cathedral! Next came the Santa Caterina´s market which had an impressive new gluelam timber/mosaic tiled roof, which was full of fresh fruit and veg as well as meat and fish.

The Barcelona Music Palace and the Modern Art
Museum really impressed us. They were both very different; the Music Palace an example of more traditional Catalan architecture using decorative mosaic tiles and the Modern Art Museum which is formed of clean lines, a glazed atrium and an odd organic form at the far end. http://www.macba.es

For our first true Spanish lunch we decided to bypass the Camper hotel and restaurant (they are really diversifying in Spain!) and went to a traditional Tapas bar, "Kasparo", tucked away in a quiet little square.

After a healthy dose of jamon, patatas bravas and hummous we are now ready for our walk back to the hotel to prepare for dinner with Laia tonight & some more tradional spanish food! http://www.tallerdetapas.com