Vive La France!

We are now onto week three and our second country and nobody's dead yet so I can report all is basicly going fine!

Our last few days in Barcelona were lovely, we ate lots of tapas and chilled a lot! We also made it to Sagrada Familia, and to Park Guell to gaze in wonder at Gaudi's work. Here's my tip though if you are going to visit Sagrada Familia. It is under construction and while the facade looks amazing, internally it is covered, literally, in scaffolding. So if you want to pay 8 euro a heqd to look at scaffolding, go for it! Also (and this really annoyed me, in fact the story of Jesus throwing out the money lenders from the temple came to mind) if you plan to asscend to the top of the church it's an additional 2 euro per person! Personally I saw all I needed to see from the ouside and will happily return to visit the internal church at a later date when there is more to see!


Sagrada Familia


Internal Church without scaffolding!


Park Guell

We moved on to Carcassonne on Saturday as I have been curious about the place for a long time! We took a train from Barcelona to Cerberre and from there another connection to Narbonne and a final connection to Carcassonne! I have find the story of the Cathar heresy fascinating and wanted to see the medieval citè. Mmmm I have to say it didn't float my boat! I am an archaeologist, I know what Medieval buildings look like! La Citè is not medieval! Talk about the Disneyfication of history! I was not impressed with the turrets nor the colour co-ordinated roof tops at all! And there wasn't a Cathar to be found! Or at any rate any information apart from what I read on the back of a beer bottle! It was a strqnge place indeed, but the people were very friendly and helpful and it was a good place to experience living like a French person!

Right now we're in Paris and are going to bunk down here for a little while as we've always fancied learning more about this city and this is a good opportunity! We endured a seven and a half hour train journey very easily, in fact it was quite pleasant and the scenery was fab! In fact I'd recommend it!

Well that's it for now there are more photos on flickr so keep checking in!

The second week

Well we´re still here in Barcelona soaking up the rays and enjoying the tapas!

It´s proven harder than expected to leave this beautiful city so we have stayed on a few days longer to laze around and take in the atmosphere.

We went to see Barcelona play Gymnastic last sunday at Camp Nou, which is probably been the highlight of the trip. I got to see Ronaldhino play in the flesh! I´m still buzzing over it! They won 3-0 and Iniesta came over to close to where we were sitting to do his goal celebration thing! It´s the little things that make me happy!

I think the thing I like best about Barcelona is the way you can just wander and explore and discover the most beautiful architecture around corners that you might have missed on another day. The weather is so clement at this time of the year and the tourists are fairly thin on the ground all of which combine to make it a great time to come here. So if you are considering visiting then think about a winter visit! Besides the heat here in summer is crazy, too hot for my blood at least!

We´re due to leave on saturday and need to sort out our train tickets to Carcassonne today. From what I can see it´ll be a long enough trip with changes in Narbonne and possibly Port Bou, but we´ll handle it we´re well rested and getting itchy to move again!

So far I have been dedicated to keeping a daily account of what´s been going on in the fabulous journal the lovely Elke gave me for the trip. It amuses me to act like a Victorian lady on a european tour! It will also serve to remind me of what I got up to on this trip which considering my capacity for forgetting stuff is a gift in itself! Thanks again Moose!

Photos!

Come see my photos on Flickr!

(They´re in the sidebar just click and view!)

All comments welcome....

One week down

I can´t believe we left home just over a week ago it really and truly feels a lot longer than that. I expected to be tired while travelling but the reality of the tiredness has taken my by surprise.

We´re in Barcelona until next saturday and we have decided to take it easy today. We had a very active day yesterday taking in a tour of Camp Nou, organising tickets for the game tomorrow night and then finding the CosmoCaixa museum and getting completely blown away by how cool it is. So cool in fact I think we´re going to have to go back before we leave here!

Barcelona is an amazing city, I have to say that I do prefer it to Madrid and we both feel very relaxed here. Also the fact that the temperature is in the early 20´s centigrade is helping the feel good factor! We´re swanning around in t-shirts and sweaty faces and the natives are still wrapped up in heavy winter coats and scarves! It´s made me realise just how miserable the poor Spanish must feel when they visit places like Ireland where the weather can be pretty miserable and the weather here today would constitute a decent summer´s day back home! But I guess that´s the beauty of travel!

We still have lots to see and do here in Barcelona but we have another week left and should be reenergised for more sight seeing soon! Then it´s off to Carcassonne for a few days and then to Paris, I think, though I don´t like the look of those storms in northern Europe so we´ll see about that one!

P.S. I should have photos to share soon...

And so it begins...

Here we are in Madrid! It´s sunny, there are blue skies and you don´t need a raincoat! Not a bad beginning to our trip considering we started off on a cold and windy morning in Dublin faced with the news that all planes were delayed due to a combination of bad weather and the little matter of a runaway refugee. It could only happen in Ireland!

We´ve had a lovely few days taking in what Madrid has to offer. The Prado, Thyssen and Sofia Reina museums are a must if you plan to come here! Í´m still in shock and awe at the fantasic offerings on show in all three... I am now a major fan of El Greco,



How cool is that?

We also managed to take in a match at the Bernebeu last night, Real Madrid v Real Zaragoza. It was fantastic! The atmosphere was electric with excitement and it was such a treat to watch proper football played by real players! I loved every minute of it. We were seated behind the north goal, the one Van Nistlerooy scored in, and that was an extra kick!



Well it´s off to Barcelona tomorrow for about a week I think and we´ll try and load some photos up if there´s any worth sharing!

And We're Off

After months of delays, illnesses, the heebie jeebies and lots more besides we are finally off on our worldwide trip!

We are due tomorrow to fly from Dublin to Madrid and so the adventure begins!

Wish us luck....