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  • Day 41

    Barcelona

    November 12, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Our hotel in Madrid was only a ten minute walk from Atocha station and we had planned to walk down this morning. Thinking about it though I imagined one of our suitcase wheels breaking or perhaps the footpath would be crowded with people going to work. It just wasn’t worth the risk so we booked out and at the same time ordered a taxi. There was a 15 minute delay, and then the traffic was so heavy we were hardly moving. This caused a little bit of stress but we made it to the station in plenty of time.

    The AVE only had one stop between Madrid and Barcelona and cruised at just under 300 kph. Now if we had a high speed rail link between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne it would stop half the planes that currently fly those routes. No need for a second airport perhaps?

    Our apartment at CASP 74 is a real find. We were upgraded to a two bedroom apartment and we have heaps of room, but far more importantly it has a washing machine. The FIRST thing we did on arrival was start washing. We have not had anywhere to wash for over a week and were really getting to the bottom of our wardrobes!

    We have been culturally backward these holidays, with no concerts and few museums so we thought we would look something up while here. I found a really good looking concert for Wednesday and we thought we would go and see if we could get tickets. Fronting up at Palau De La Musico we couldn’t see the desired concert, but there was something else on that looked good this evening so we bought tickets.

    Then we headed off to Las Ramblas and walked the length of it twice. It is an interesting place, but it really is overrun with tourist shops and eating places. We will go back tomorrow and have another look, plus some other things nearby.

    Dinner was a simple repast in our apartment before we togged up in our finest (not) and headed to the Palau. It is a magnificent building in every way. How it could have been designed without CAD and then built is almost incomprehensible. The concert was Barcelona Guitar Trio and Dance, and was a tribute to Paço de Lucia. The guitarists were world class, and funny as well, but the dancers ... they were superb athletes and musicians, helping with the rhythm section by very complex clapping and tapping at times. We are so glad that we saw a little bit of the true Spanish, or is that Catalonian, culture.
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