A bit of traveling today. We departed Tossa de Mar a touch after 9.30am with me having snuck in one last ocean swim in the tepid waters of the Mediterranean, whilst Wendy had a final run along the coast and Courtney smashed her core in the apartment. Mitchell meanwhile enjoyed a sleep in!

We drove the roughly 80k's to the Barcelona airport to deposit the car and get transported to the terminal for the shuttle bus into Barcelona central. It was all pretty smooth sailing and we found ourselves checked into our hotel in Barcelona around 1pm. We were pretty soon reminded of just how many pedestrians there are in La Rumblas, the main street of Barcelona as we dragged our two bike bags and four heavy back packs through the throngs of tourists oblivious to the intentions of four intrepid travellers intent on getting to their hotel.

With a weight lifted literally off our shoulders, we embraced the remainder of what was a typically hot and humid Spanish day by first visiting the local market next door and munching through as many goodies as we could lay our hands on. The market is truly amazing with the choices available, and we each found something to appeal to our tastes - followed by a huge bag of dried fruit which we took with us for the remainder of the day's adventures.

There is no real way of avoiding walking the paved streets of Barcelona, and over the course of the afternoon we did heaps. We first wandered along La Ramblas and soaked up the many sights and smells of one of the busiest streets in the world. We had fun interacting with a few of the statue performers and got a few shots of them doing their thing once we'd deposited coins in their hats. There was one guy there that Wendy and I had seen when we were in Spain about four years ago which we found quite amazing.

Intent on seeing a few of the more interesting sites with the kids, we found a bike tour company and booked ourselves into the 4.30pm session. This also doubled as Courtney's recovery ride under the strict instructions of Courtney's coach Adam. Over the course of the next 3 hours we stopped at many of the famous attractions of Barcelona including the mandatory Sagrida Familia, the cathedral synonymous with the Architect Antoni Gaudi who commenced work on the project in 1883 until his premature death in 1926 due to a trolley accident. Since then the project has continued unabated in order to fulfil his visions and currently more towers are being added with the project finally expected to be completed in 2026 which will mark the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death.

Our route took in a few other examples of Gaudi's work, as well as the Arch de Triomphe, the gardens, the beach and dock area which was only really created as part of the 1992 Olympics, as well as the old town and its famous piazza Catalanya. Our guide Moritz was born in Germany but raised in Italy and spent 10 or so years in south-east Asia. He was conversant in six languages.

We finished the day off with dinner at La Flauta, a Spanish restaurant about 1km from where we were staying which Moritz suggested we might try. His recommendation was spot on. The tapas selections were very tasty, from grilled vegetables, prawns, sardines, sweet peppers, fried squid and roast potatoes.

The only thing missing was ice cream which we soon rectified on our way home via La Ramblas, each of us quite satisfied with our day in Barcelona.