We are certainly getting our share of exercise with six flights of stairs to the apartment. Including all the walking we do, this is one way to keep fit. After breakfast we headed out to find the local market in Rue Montorgueil. It's literally just around the corner but we headed to Les Halles, Centre Pompidou and Notre Dame before heading back that way. Les Halles is being redeveloped into a new centre with open space. we didn't hang around there too long. Th...

A long, tiring and frustrating day but we ended up in Paris! The cab to Barcelona airport went smoothly; it was downhill from there. As Best Flights stuffed our booking in Australia some months ago, we had to fly to Paris via Madrid. As we went to board the flight today, Air Europa sent us back to the lounge as there was a technical fault with the plane. Better to discover these things on the ground! It took an hour to repair and this meant that missed our conne...

Our last full day in Spain - this time! After breakfast all six of us headed to Parc de la Ciutadela - City Park. This is quite a large park and there's a lot going on in it. Tim and Tom played soccer and Bruce and Ben learnt how to use a pentagonal shaped cloth called a dapstar. There were some guys using them as well as walking on a slack rope tied between two trees. The local council was setting up for concerts here and elsewhere across the city. Perhaps it ...

If the Alhambra is Spain's most visited tourist site, La Sagrada Familia must be a very close second - and gaining fast. The queue went around to the opposite side of the site, although moved at a steady pace to only take an hour. Rain didn't dampen our enthusiasm, nor did the umbrella sellers appearing from nowhere. There was an Aussie couple in front of us and I am not sure if he was being cute or dumb. He commented to his partner that the Sagrada family must ...

As Ana was fighting a sore throat Tom, Bruce and I headed off to explore Barrio Gotic and walk up to Sagrada Familia. El Gotic is the original barrio or village of Barcelona. There are parts of the Roman wall in evidence. The Placa de Sant Jaume is the municipal centre of Barcelona bracketed by two impressive facades - the Generalitat and Ayuntament. There was also a sculpture in nearby Placa de Sant Miguel that looked like giant, twisted chicken wire. We walke...