Ian : This one is just to let you know that i'm putting a link on the right to our 2005 New Zealand trip webpage.

AND ! I've created a webpage for the really wide panorama photos which cant be loaded here on Blogspot.

We plan to go see the isle of Mull soon, where the 1940's film 'I know where i'm going' was filmed.
The film that made me want to come to Scotland and see it for myself.

AND ! . . . here's another pic of Barcelona ...

Cheers !

Ian : More of the delightful sights of Barcelona ...

Parc Guell - full of lovely Gaudi design.

El Corte Inglés - the only chain department store in Spain. Hardly David Jones or John Lewis, but not quite Big W.

and just some more of the yummy streets ...

and just as we were on the train back to the airport, I got another glimpse of this farm dwelling just outside the city.

Michael: We were very sad to leave Barcelona - it really is a very atmospheric and dynamic city. I shall definitely be back. The flight back to Glasgow was eventful. We were expecting a direct flight (non-stop, according to the jargon) but were informed after boarding that we would be flying back via Edinburgh. Now Edinburgh is barely 100km from Glasgow, so we knew this was going to be interesting. It was a rough landing in Edinburgh because of high winds, but that wasn't the worst of it. Some poor Glasgow-bound soul disembarked, possibly under the misapprehension that he had arrived at his destination. The airline took an hour to locate him while we sat there on the tarmac. When we finally got under way, it took just 12 minutes to fly to Glasgow - my shortest flight ever. We barely skimmed the treetops the whole way. Top that for an exciting fairground ride!

Ian : So, the next part of our tour of Barcelona ...

We thought we'd take the cable car from the Barceloneta (a little fishing village to the south of Barcelona's medieval centre) up to Montjuïc for some excellent mid-afternoon views of the city. When we arrived, there were 25 - 30 people queueing for tickets. Not bad, we thought, probably a 30 minute wait.

However . . .

45 minutes passed, we had almost reachedthe little ticket booth and the lone seller closes the window and takes the lift to the top of the tower, from where the cable cars leave. There are only two cars that go back and forth on two lines.
Eventually, after 20 minutes, he came back and opened the window to sell more tickets to the devoted fans waiting patiently in our very English way. We get our tickets and we thought, Great, we're on our way!
We made it up to the top of the tower and got out to find another queue up there. &*^%^&! It had been quite sunny when we started on our adventure and now it was getting colder and also windy up the top of the tower.

Another 50 minutes of looking at Barcelona from our lovely high vantage point through filthy window glass and with everyone just about losing the will to live, we clamber (shivering) on board! (M: I had taken a jumper with me; it really wasn't that cold.) Here are the photos:

We never found out what the big copper fish-shaped building was.

from the cable car tower looking north over Barceloneta (shivering & grumpy)

Michael: That is the world famous Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. Naturally, there will be more pics of this later on.
Michael: .. and of course that's Columbus, on top of a tall column, pointing towards the new world

Michael: Us at the pavilion at Parc de la Ciutadella

Michael: I simply had to have a section about the food. Have to say we really enjoyed our food experiences in Barcelona. There is something really great about eating a traditional meal at its source. The simplest foods can be special. For instance, take pa amb tomàquet, the Catalan national dish. It is simple in concept: toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, dusted with salt and drizzled with olive oil. This would probably taste quite ordinary at home; in Catalonia, it's an experience. We also discovered Rioja, a collection of smooth drinking Spanish red wines. Excellent with pretty much any meat dish, of which there are PLENTY in Spain. The Catalan version of sangria was quite spicy, I found - almost like cold mulled wine with fruit in it. Fortunately the weather was warm enough for us to indulge!

Ian: We returned from our four days in Barcelona last tuesday ! We are sure it was only the first of many visits ! Because it was SO BEAUTIFUL !!

Michael: Can only second what Ian has said. We were very impressed with Barcelona, the people, the food, the culture, the history, the architecture, the museums - all great.

Anyway, to begin at the beginning, we left Glasgow on Saturday morning, flying Globespan directly to Barcelona El Prat, a very modern, large and airy airport - a legacy of the 1992 Olympic games, no doubt. Globespan being a cheap airline, not everything went well. The plane deposited us in Terminal A, but our luggage ended up in Terminal B. After waiting for about an hour at the belts for our backpack, we heard an announcement over the tannoy (a lovely British word for what we Australians call a PA system)

This is a photo of Barcelona's França Station. It's a pretty modern station, by European standards, built in the 1920s.

from our hotel room

those georgeous little streets and alleyways!

Plaça de Sant Jaume

in Barceloneta - the town nearest to the sea.

on the night of the lunar eclipse (M: No, that's actually a palm frond, NOT the lunar eclipse!)

Michael: This is us at Montjuïc, which we got to via a cable car from Barceloneta. It was actually quite a frustrating ride, but more on that later.

MORE TO COME !