Robbed, Throwing Up, and having a Great Time!

Sagrada Familia
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25^th September

Barcelona

Drove into Barcelona and survived crazy drivers that go 20 kmph over the 130 kmph speed limit! Dropped the car off and jumped on the metro.  Then, we got robbed.

After six and a half years catching public transport in London, and a greater part of Europe never having had anything stolen, within 2 minutes of being in Barcelona we had our passports taken through a scam.  As we attempted to get onto the train two guys pushed between Carmen and Richard (pretending to try and help Carmen with her luggage), then proceeded to bar Richard from getting on the train by blocking the entrance to try to separate us.  Richard managed to barge them out of the way just before the doors closed and the two guys jumped off the train once they saw they hadn't been able to separate us.  We congratulated ourselves and thought how lucky we were, then Richard turned around and Carmen noticed that his bag was undone.  Then we realised the passports were gone.  Not good.

Barcelona Parka
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Made our way to our hotel then straight back into town to the Police station after reporting them lost.  We were told to come back in the morning and make a statement.  At this stage we were pretty gutted.  We toured the station again sifting through bins and looking under seats.  Then we spent the whole evening filling in new passport application forms.  We also realised Richard would then have to re-apply for his UK visa which could take another few months and most likely require interviews back in London.  Not a good start to our Barcelona leg.

The View From Tibidabo
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26^th September

The next day we arrived at the Police Station early.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Needed a translator.  Apparently our Catalan wasn't up to scratch.  Made a statement, looked through lots of mug shots.  And .... Yay .... The best news ever!  The same thing happened to another woman and she also looked around the station.  Sadly, she didn't find her passports but to our good fortune - she found ours!!  The police returned them while we were at the station.  HUGE sigh of relief!!  NOW our holiday in Barcelona can start!

Sept 09 - Barcelona 025 (2).jpg
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The process of sifting through hundreds of mug shots of an assortment of ugly looking Albanians, dodgy Spaniards weirdly disfigured by knife scars or misspelt tattoos, and a variety of characters straight out of a Peter Jackson movie, took most of the day.  After a wander around Plaza Catalunya, to the Cathedral and down the Ramblas we headed off for some tapas and an early night.

27 - 28^th September

We decided to extend our stay in Barcelona by a day to make up for the lost time spent chasing passports.  Fortunately, this was our second time here, having come for Richard's 30th with Mike and Lisa.

Where are Mike and Lisa??
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Headed out to see our favourite Barcelona site, the Sagrada Familia.  It's such an impressive Cathedral despite the fact that it's going to be another hundred or so years before it's finished.  Took some great photos from the outside but decided against the cues and cost of going back inside again.

Decided to make our way down to the port for lunch and a visit to the aquarium.  Big mistake.  We had the worst lunch ever at possibly the best location in the whole of Barcelona.  Tapas Bangladeshi style consists of slight variations on the Spanish theme.  Rather than bacalao (delicious salted cod) we got deep fried hunks of skate wing.  In place of a traditional Catalunyan salad we got a weird potato coleslaw glued together with Heinz mayo.  Everything we ate bore a resemblance to what was on the menu but with a 'we know you're not coming back so we don't care' attitude to taste, authenticity and cost.

Barcelona Marina
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The Barcelona aquarium was good fun, got to see some interesting looking sea horses that looked like seaweed (maybe they labelled the tank wrong), sharks, sunfish and more bizarrely for an inland Spanish city - Antarctic Penguins.

Found an amazing little place for dinner and really enjoyed the food.  Carmen possibly less so because as soon as we got back she started throwing up..... and throwing up and throwing up.  It lasted all that evening and night and finally settled down the following morning.  We had decided late at night to extend our stay in Barcelona by yet another day just in case Carmen hadn't recovered in time to leave at 10am as planned.

Barcelona Marina
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29^th September

When Carmen's stomach finally began to behave again we decided to wander towards Tibidabo, the huge mountain that overlooks Barcelona from the West.  We decided to walk up to the funicular at the bottom of the mountain, head up to have a look at the massive Church visible from below and perhaps have a go at the amusement park.

After a long hike we made it to the park at the bottom of the mountain and had a well deserved bocadillo (safe food for dodgy stomachs) then proceeded up the mountain in Barcelona's equivalent of the cable car.  Great views at the top, slightly marred by the haze that was hanging over the city.  We were able to pick out the spot where we were staying quite easily as it's a fair way out of town.  Headed back down at closing and went home to pack for FRANCE.