Barcelona II of III

After yesterday's pleasant start and relaxing day, today we got it very back to front - it's been too long since I was in the Mediterranean and I've forgotten the best way to tourist through the day. What this means is that instead of going out early, coming back to the hotel around lunchtime and having a rest for a few hours before resuming the sightseeing in the evening, we instead had a lie in and left around the peak of the heat.

While I am better prepared and was copiously watered throughout the trip, it was still careless - with the Metro being particularly sluggish on the Sunday, we walked from the hotel to Place de Catalunya, at the head of Ramblas, and walked down to the end, retracing some of our route from last time in the process. At the foot of Ramblas we veered off and took a peek into the Barcelona Maritime Museum. I'd managed to visit this in the early morning when I was here 18 months ago, only to find my efforts unrewarded when the majority of the museum was closed for renovation. I was surprised and disappointed to find that the renovation work was still ongoing, and I still didn't get to see!

The rest of the afternoon was conducted somewhat lazily - a walk along the port, a delicious paella in a restaurant and then we walked to the foot of the cable car which would take us back over the port and up to Montjuc, one of the hills which overlooks the city. However, faced with an 80 minute line we decided that we could cope without that, and instead walked along to the beachfront and sought a nearby park.

Our seeking was inaccurate and we ended up back where we'd started despite taking a nice little detour through some little local streets, parks and squares. We did find the park in the end and it was worth the walk - again, a lovely place to relax, sit and enjoy. You would see entire families out together, just relaxing in the park as if it was perfectly normal, and it was a nice and welcoming atmosphere.

This evening was an interesting event to be in Barcelona for - Barcelona vs Real Madrid. I was aware this was happening before, but only as I'd checked the fixture list in advance to see if there was an average game we could maybe go to. If any of my readers aren't aware of the significance of the game, it's the biggest fixture in Spain and possibly one of the biggest in Europe, a game split along national and nationalist lines, with a bitter history that goes all the way back through (and has some of its roots in) the Franco dictatorship, the Catalan struggle for independence and long beyond.

We didn't get to see the game, but we were watching out of the corner of our eyes the TV in the bars across the street from our restaurant to see what was happening - and our waiter kept us informed, as did the radio that he was carrying around with him. When there's a goal scored in a game in Spain, you can tell quite easily from the commentary, let me be clear! The match ended 2-2, which was a disappointment as (1) I favoured Barcelona and (2) it would have been interesting to see how the city celebrated.