We met up again with Helen, Geoff and Megan in Beziers. Catching the train to Barcelona turned into a bit of an adventure of it's own. The national strike in Spain the day before saw Mary and co hiring a mini bus to transport their crew to Barcelona as their train was cancelled and our train journey diverted and delayed. We took our chances on a little old man who was traveling to Valencia and seemed to understand the ever changing instructions we were given about which train (3 in all) and which platform - no fun with stairs and suitcases! Eventually though we realized he had no clue and probably a bit of dementia as he smiled and shrugged when finally a French speaking Canadian woman also asked him for assistance!
After a slow trip south and a few passport checks along the way (police coming on trains is a bit scary) we arrived in Barcelona. We also had a problem with our seats on the train, once we were at the Spanish border the conductor insisted we leave our 1st class seats and sit in "tourist" despite no one booking the other seats. All the nice people in our carriage tried to negotiate but the very intense and conformist conductor pointed to the next carriage and couldn't be swayed.
Wow! The place is as exciting as last time, if not more populated by visitors. Everyone was in awe of the place, the buskers, the art, all of Gaudi's work and more.
Dira and I went back to Sagrada Familia and were impressed with the amount of completion in the main chapel that has occurred in three years. We came to Barcleona really as the easiest way to get to Venice but wished we had a bit more time here.
And the food! By goodness we are supporting the European FGC recovery I am sure by the amount of food we are consuming! We went back to two of our favorites, Taller de Tapas in our old stomping ground of Placa de Pi and the now legendary Santa Maria.
Santa Maria saw all 14 of us in our own room enjoying a degustation of 12 courses. After nearly sending the chef over the edge with a few food allergies and fussy eaters we were away! Courses of mussels, prawns, fish, lamb and frogs legs were soon on the table. A number of those present had never tried frogs legs (we did last time we ate here) and a lot of hilarity was had as Jerry (Mary's brother) had to cover the remains of his tasting with his napkin in respect of the two live frogs that were in terrariums in the room. I am not sure what the upstairs diners thought as there were frequent bursts of singing and drumming. A course of hair arranging with chopsticks completed the meal(we were not sure which course the chopsticks were for) and we danced on into the night
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