Just before we left for our night trip to Barcelona we noticed the downstairs instruments in the saloon were not coming on properly! Peter contacted the Palma guys and after a trouble shooting Whatsapp call it turned out the box in the starboard engine bay had packed up. At least there was one in stock that could be delivered to the marina in Barcelona and at least the fly bridge ones were working OK. You have to count your blessings in this world. We duly arrived in Marina Vela in Barcelona and connected the box that got delivered as promised no trouble only to find that was obviously not the problem! Peter had a very frustrating bad tempered day trying to find a faulty connection but finally gave up. A job for another day.

This whole business meant that we couldn't get the Hop On Hop Off bus as planned to and asked to stay another day. We took a private guided walking tour the next day that I had booked to see some of the architecture of Barcelona especially the Gaudi works. It was a fascinating 3 hours walking all over the city with an excellent guide. There's not a boring skyline in this town! Not just Gaudi but other architects went crazy with roof tops, pinnacles, towers, spires, house frontages you name it. Rally amazing stuff. Even the more traditional French and Dutch styles were beautifully ornate with loads of wrought iron filigree and features. I think if one had stood still for too long in the 1800's one would have got decorated! We loved it all. The highlight of course was the Basilica Sagrada Familia which, after 140 years of building is due to be completed in 2026 - 100 years since Antoni Guard's death. An absolutely staggering work of art and construction. Think: Louis Carroll/your worst nightmare/Hansel and Gretel/a psychedelic trip and a fantasy land meets religion and you might just get close! Gaudi, unfortunately and perhaps predictably, was never going to see it's completion - not helped by being hit and killed by a trolley car at age 40. His impact on Barcelona is undeniable and along with the Olympic Games of 1992 cemented the city's position as a major Spanish tourist destination. Do you remember Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe singing "Barcelona" together? Worth a google if you haven't seen that.

All of that effectively wore us out so we spent the next day just sitting on the Red Bus looking at things out of the window listening to the commentary with only a break for tapas at the very good Mercat de St Josip in the Las Ramblas area.

The marina we were in was right next to where the Americas Cups boats were beginning to arrive. At that time there were only Italy, Britain and New Zealand there. The security guard told me I could maybe get a visitors pass to look at Luna Rossa but when I emailed a request they said no.

We now start to head around the coast to France.