It’s very interesting to see the differences between countries. Basic things like how much nicer the bread/baguettes in France are compared to Spain, but also how friendly Spanish people on average are compared to the French. It’s somewhat obvious how stereotypes appear when you’re travelling.
Border Crossing Uno
After leaving Carcassonne we crossed the border into Spain (unfortunately not a new country for the count) and stopped for lunch at Girona. Again went and saw the local cathedral which had the widest Gothic nave in the world and only St Peter’s Basilica is wider in the whole world. Very impressive structure.
Barcelona Redux
Trusting our Nav-man 'Claude' in getting us to the hotel (after playing the Barcelona song as we drove in) we dropped our bags in another fantastic hotel and headed off in the afternoon by metro to the Sagrada Familia. A refresher course – this is Gaudi’s still unfinished cathedral which has been officially opened and classed as a basilica. I’d already been here on my previous visit to Barcelona but this time actually went inside – and I can’t recommend it enough for those sick of cathedrals. It’s totally different and light and airy.
(view along central aisle)
We didn’t have long so had to rush through the museum and unfortunately the lifts to the top had already closed but our hotel had a complete 360 degree view around Barcelona so didn’t feel too hard done by. Caught the metro back to the old city – visited Barcelona’s old cathedral for free (back to the usual architecture) and walked to our hotel.
We used tripadvisor to find a vegetarian restaurant since a few of our group were sick of fish from France and found this fantastic place. Had a degustation tasting menu with 8 or so courses and they were superb. It was so good we returned the next night where I made a bit of a mistake. For dessert I ordered a sweet potato, chocolate and nougat ice-cream. I assumed the ingredients would be mixed somehow into some type of ice-cream which would have had an interesting taste. However what came out was a cooked sweet potato, drizzled in chocolate with some tiny scoops of ice-cream on top. That’s my fault for misunderstanding the commas in the menu.
Our full day in Barcelona dawned with fantastic sunshine (think Barcelona is one of my Top 5 Cities in the World) and we caught the funicular up to the Olympic Hill with the Stadium. Again something I’d already done but it was great seeing the view again. We then trekked down the hill a bit and caught the cable-car over to the beach. Nearly caught the one that headed up to the castle but just managed to avoid the slightly expensive detour. The cable car was fantastic with a superb view over the city. Saw the beach (with some keen surfers all in wetsuits) and caught the bus back to La Ramblas for a late lunch.
I had to do some shopping since I only had one decent pair of long pants left after the African adventure. Ducked into a few shops and finally found some reasonably priced jeans and were beginning to find the right size when a helpful shop attendant came over to assist. With some halting English on his part and me not even trying my woeful Spanish we tried to work out what size I was. I said 32-34 (which I think is about right in Australia) but he was shocked. I was definitely at least a 42 according to him. Didn’t think I had put on that amount of weight even though I have been eating very well and not really exercising at all. Seems Europe measures something completely different and still don’t fully understand what they measure but after a fair amount of trial and error (and some jeans that wouldn’t have fit me since I was in Year 9) found some suitable attire for the rest of the trip.
We left Barcelona very early the next morning because we had to get to the west coast of France and we had a little bit of a detour on the way.
Andorra
To colour in another puzzle piece (albeit a very tiny one) of the world map we chose to head through Andorra as we crossed back into France. Had been watching the snow reports to make sure the passes were still open and we were still in luck with this very mild autumn/winter. Still some amazing horizons and again just totally different to my time in Africa.
(snow)
Border Crossing Trois
We arrived on the south-west coast of France in the dark at a place called St Jean de Luz. Another nice hotel with amazingly friendly staff. Must be the Basque blood in them. This village is very close to the Spanish border and also very close to Biarritz. Biarritz would be known to those who follow surfing as it’s the place where the serious French surfing competitions occur. We spent the morning basking in the sun around St Jean de Luz and walked around a promontory on the Atlantic Ocean. Was thinking about how many of the world’s oceans I have swum in? Don’t think I’ve actually swum in the Atlantic but it looked pretty cold and I’m not that committed…
(back towards Atlantic Ocean)
After a drive around the countryside (and finding a train to the top of a mountain being hit with curse of November) we arrived in Biarritz. Found a great place to watch the sunset with a lighthouse (which was duly climbed of course) and had to rug up due to the falling temperatures. It seems the cold of a European winter is finally reaching us. After wandering around in at most a lightweight jacket for the trip so far was a bit of a shock having to pull out the London winter jacket.
(Biarritz Coast Sunset)
Had a reasonably nice meal and thought we’d be lucky and hear a jazz band since they were setting up but after waiting for around 2 hours we only heard one song before they headed off somewhere… Spent the last night in France for who knows how long for me as we now head into Spain. (Which makes it Border Crossing Quatro)
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