Day 101, 13 October 2012, Badalona - Barcelona - PARIS!!! Almost 3 weeks have passed since we arrived in Spain and it would be fair to say we could both live here easily. What's not to like about stunning architecture, inexpensive food and bottles of wine for less than €2. And of all the places we have visited, Barcelona has been incredibly accessible. Today we farewelled it sadly with a final nip into town on the Metro to hunt down some portable camping type cutlery (to make our picnics in parks just that much posher). We also, finally, got to a Post Office (Correos!) to offload the jewellery box from Morocco and some other treasures and posted them home. Mission accomplished it was back to Badalona to squeeze the contents of the exploding backpacks back into said backpacks. Finally done the next stage of the adventure began and we hoofed it to the railway station to get into the city to check in to the Elipsos Train Hotel. Somewhat hilariously we actually passed all the stations again once we were on the Train Hotel and heading north. It was a cash saving trip actually. When we got to Badalona to catch the train to Barcelona Sants and on to Barcelona Franca we found our train hotel ticket included local transport to get us there... €8 saved just like that. What can I say about the Train Hotel? When we reached Estacio de Franca it was like we were in a movie, an enormous dome shaped sation... wrought iron... railway clocks.... and huffing quietly to herself on Via 3 there awaited our rolling hotel. We took the advice of our train guru at www.seat61.com and didn't bother with a Eurail pass for our travels. At €50 per day plus €20 for a seat reservation or €100 odd extra for a basic sleeper berth it would have meant the worst berth on the train to Paris would have set us back €150 each. Instead we went to the Spanish train website 3 months ago and bought the super-duper way in advance, heavily discounted ticket for €170 each. A false economy? Non, non mes amis... because this was for the flashest and grooviest Gran Class cabin on board. We felt somewhat like our favourite detective, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot as we checked into our room with two comfy bunks with crisp white linens and our own shower and toilet and an amenities kit with everything we could desire, right down to a shoe shiner. Our ultra-cheap ticket also included a 3 course dinner in the dining car (pictured) with unlimited wine. Had we been paying customers, dinner would have come to €140 odd... Chateau Christophe from Malbec was quite a treat with our Argentian rib-eye (first steak dinner in three months). Eventually our waiter needed the table for the 11 pm seating (remember, we were still on Spanish time). He reminded us of no one more so than Manuel of Fawlty Towers fame... no moustache and far more competent, but hilarious nevertheless as he swayed up and down the carriage balancing plates and bottles and glorious meals. Rather tipsily we headed to the room and found that alcohol does not actually improve co-ordination whilst showering in a moving train. Fortunately it was not far to fall into bed and it was 7 am when the cabin attendant knocked smartly on the door to give us a headstart in the dining car for breakfast (more demand at that time of the day as some other tickets also include breakfast ). For most of breakfast we could have sworn we were actually in a tunnel since it was absolutely pitch black outside. Turns out it's just the French countryside in Autumn - it starting lightening up to a dark, wet and gloomy day as we pulled into Gare d'Austerlitz, 12 hours from country to country, warm, snug and well fed. And freezing. Down to 13 degrees from the mid twenties.... brrrr. Woody Allen said in the movie Midnight in Paris that she is never so beautiful as when it is raining. We shall see as the day unfolds. Bien sur Monsieur Allen, we shall see.