After 2 days on the bus we determined we would explore and the first item on the itinerary was to be the La Sagrada Famila, this was the dream of Gaudi, and has continued since his death to be constructed. However we failed to do our research properly and when we turned up at the ticket counter were told we should have booked, the only times free for entry were 6:15pm or later, and here it was 10am in the morning. That will teach us. So we booked for 6:15 and de...

After almost 6 weeks of traveling we finally got absolutely soaked with rain. It was almost monsoonal. The day started strangely as we were walking to get onto the bus for the 2nd day of our open top bus ticket we remarked about how there was no traffic, and all of the shops were still shut, but as it was only just 10am we thought this may be normal in Barcelona. Alas no, we were variously told it was Columbus day, or Spain National Day, it is in fact both. Spa...

After the long day of travel, which ended with at taxi cab ride only rivaled by a cab ride once taken in Xian with Bruce and Anne, we decided to follow our norm for a new city by taking an open top bus tour. We are lucky as there is a bus stop for one of the open top bus companies a couple of hundred meters from the hotel. The bus has 2 routes labelled the Green and Orange, we hopped on and as our bus stop is on the Green route decided to do that one today. This...

A wonderful SLOW day in Cannes. After all the time on the ship where we were on excursions many days early in the morning, and then having late dinners today we took things very easy to get ready for the travel tomorrow. We had a stroll along the beach to the Cannes version of the open top bus tour, this is "Le petit train", which takes almost 1 & 1/2 hrs showing many of the sites we would not have encountered other wise, in particular the Notre-Dame church ...

yesterday was the last day of the cruise, and we spent it in Arles, which is full of Roman ruins, 2nd only to Rome according to the guide. Although we think after 2 weeks of ruins, churches, and art, we are a bit jaded. Whilst the guide was very good we struggled to keep concentration and decided to wander off on our own as we were in desperate need of a coffee. Arles is also famous as the home of Vincent Van Gogh in his later years and was here he lived in the ...