Barcelona

Our luck with Le Boat didn't improve overnight as when we woke we discovered two of the large reclining cushions from the top deck had been blown overboard with the strong wind.  Bill went searching and found them about 100m away in the water on the opposite side of the canal. He fished them out and returned them, crazy to think they hadn't been tied down. Of course the forecast for the next 10 days along the canal is for fantastic, sunny, warm, calm weather. .... Oh well, you can't win them all.

So on this lovely sunny day we caught the train to Spain. A beautiful, clean, quiet fast train. We reached 299km per hour and arrived just 2 hours later in Barcelona.  The trip was scenic with snow covered mountains on one side and lakes, wetlands and then the sea on the other. Barcelona is huge. The entire 15 minutes from the train station by taxi was through the city, shops, shops, shops, businesses, traffic, pedestrians... So busy.  But also appears a clean city, and we have only seen one beggar in our walk around the streets near the hotel, which is not what we were expecting. The narrow alley ways, a gothic cathedral at one end of our laneway, beautiful restaurants and an antique market at the end of the street made for great first impressions.

We were all pretty tired so we decided to have room service and an early night. Food was not so good so I think we will make the effort to stay up late tomorrow and go out for dinner, no restaurant opens before 8pm, and those of you who know Max know that is his bedtime ;)