Up early for a short run around the castle and through the walls and city. Lots of dodgy ground, so no records set, and I just had to capture another collection of pics from slightly different angles. This place has to be seen to be believed.It's like they built it with digital photography in mind where you would take 1,000's of photos...and we did! Back to the house, a quick shower, final pack then farewells to our hosts - with one last look at the amazing castle view from upstairs.

When that deck is finished........

The car journey to Narbonne was hassle free and supe fast/smooth, with not much missed from what we could tell. 130km/hr makes it hard to absord the ambiance! (Trucks are 90km and polite!) Only the occasional loonie, and from what we've experienced - probably not French!

Car drop off was across from the station. The staff were super friendly and efficient/helpful (Thanks Hertz!), and guided us to some breakfast. At the station, the staff were similarly helpful and friendly and the train arrived only a tad late. Found our seats OK, but no room for luggage, so I'm typing this from the next carriage (restaurant) as our seats are full with our cases. No 'wee fee', as they pronounce it (ala wifi) so typing for later upload.

Train ride was fast (Its a TGV and they go up to 180 I think), smooth and uneventful. Once in at the massive Narbonne station (More like an airport), we found some free weefee and looked up our hotel. We remembered it wasn't far, but 45 minutes walk on a sunny day with suitcases wasn't going to happen. A pleasant taxi ride down incredibly wide and impressive streets to the hotel allowed us to take in some of the people friendly elements of the city. Dedicated cycle lanes and walking lanes, trams, undergrounds etc etc and a serious leaning towards people not cars was all around. We checked in, got upgraded to a very posh room (I dont think we've had a hotel room better than this) in the Fairmont hotel, then got directions to the city and hit the metro after a short walk. We traipsed through a couple of km of tunnels to get above ground and headed to the Gaudi Catherderal with the creatures on it that we saw back in '89. Yes, that makes us feel old.

The Sagrada Familia is the incomplete church started in 1882 and since we last saw it, has been under construction for a few years. Tours of it are funding completion, due in 2028. It is the strangest thing, but absolutely stunning in its execution. Seeing the old stages side by side the new ones is interesting, but seeing the angles, colours and detail is beyond belief. We reckon that he'd tasted too many Sangria's when he designed that... so we went and put that to the test in the Gothic Quarter, having found a tapas place that made a mean Sangria. We saw how much alchohol went into that thing!! I can feel a Gaudi coming on.....Also, during our travels, I decided to try a local drink from a supermarket. Couldn't really tell what was in it, but had seen it everywhere and it was only 57 cents. Turned out to be beer, so we had a giggle about how riskee it seemed to be guzzling beer walking along the street, coming from good old Perth (Where Mr plod may have something to say about that). Nice small cans, and quite drinkable. Oh, and alchohol here is a bargain...

We wandered the streets for a few hours all up, and had a great time soaking up the city with so many thousand others. People are everywhere, supermarkets are everywhere, massive apartment blocks, recycling bins, wide avenues...

and of course some crazy architecture all around. We felt safe at every point (and didn't expect to) and found people friendly, happy, and most of all car drivers quite happy to play second fiddle to us mere humans.

Final repack for tomorrow, getting ready for shipboard life, then off to bed....late again. Oh, well. We can rest when we get home....