Barcelona - September 2007
After my first trip to Barcelona, two years earlier where we missed our flight and spent almost 24 hours at a the airport bar waiting for another one, I must admit I was skeptical. I am delighted to say I needn’t have been. Memories during my first visit had indeed been jaded by the long tiresome wait, (my eyes had been affected by long weary stares at the tangerine orange we know of the Easyjet sign). This time around everything looked brighter!
To begin with, Les Ramblas was alive with activity and its refreshing to be in a city where eating late is the norm, (we left the hotel for dinner after 9pm each night). Lots and lots of tapas bars, be prepared, one starter on a menu often feeds two or three. We never ran out of shops to visit as our hotel was on Gran Via, two blocks from Passeig de Gracia - Girls beware, Zara and Mango on the corner!
Days were spent on the Olympic beach and the mid-September weather was lovely. The beach is lined with restaurants and taps bars to suit all tastes and budgets! After a few days we were missing the drinking culture we have accustomed to in London and the by chance we stumbled on the West Side of Olympic Beach on Saturday night. Well lets just say the party started there. A varied choice of restaurants, bars and clubs, (the kinds of clubs with scantily clad ladies shimmying upside down on stripper poles). Eventually we spilled out onto the beach with a few cans of beer and watched others dance the night away in the distance. There we lay until the sand combers arrived, ready to clear the beach away for another day. Aaahhh…. memories of Barcelona.
