Today we had a narrow victory over Barcelona. Our first goal was to complete the mundane but necessary task of laundry. As it turned out, our helpful hostel woman gave us the wrong directions and we spent some time walking in circles before we (a) decided that there was definitely no laundry on the square we had been directed to; and (b) summoned the courage to ask a nearby cafe owner to confirm that there was no laundry even remotely close to where we had been sent. Armed with a new set of directions, we headed off again and 15 minutes later arrived at a laundry where we were able to wash and dry all our dirty Moroccan clothes over about an hour and a half (that's 1 - 0 to Vic and Dale).

After a picnic lunch costing around 7 Euro, including a bottle of wine, we decided to visit the Museu Picasso. Apparently it houses one of the largest collections of Picasso's works and is a fascinating insight into the development of his characteristic style of painting. After catching the metro and walking, walking, walking we were still no closer to finding the Art gallery and I was beginning to regret my choice of footwear (jandals). My distress was compounded by the fact that Dale devoured my consolation ice-cream while I was buying a postcard for my grandmother!!!

Marital relations at a low, we finally found our way to the Gallery - tucked down a narrow street we had walked past twice. What we had also overlooked was that it was Monday. The Museum is closed Mondays. So point to Barcelona bringing the score to an even 1-1. (At least the walking was picturesque!!)

Our final mission of the day was to find tapas and sangria. Leaving our hostel at around 9pm we walked to a nearby square filled with the tables and chairs of the surrounding restaurants. In one corner there was a tapas bar that had delicious looking food emerging from it, so we grabbed ourselves a seat and ordered a jug of sangria. Amazingly, I have made it through the last 28 years without ever trying sangria (the sangria-labelled concoctions of university days always looked suspiciously like rocket fuel with fruit), so it was there in the Barcelona square that I discovered my love of the icy-spicy-fruity red wine creation that is Spanish sangria!

We were given a slip of paper listing the available tapas and instructed to tick those that we wanted. It was difficult not to get carried away with the ticking since every ceramic dish of food that went by us looked so good! In the end we settled on spicy fried potatoes which came with a generous dollop of garlic mayo, homemade chicken and ham croquettes (the potato inside was so deliciously cheesy and creamy in the middle that they melted in the mouth), a sausage sandwich with fresh tomato salsa (Dale's idea), and mushrooms which had been cooked whole in garlic oil and filled with finely chopped Serrano ham and chives (AMAZING!) this food experience was a clear win for Vic and Dale, so we finished the day 2-1 ahead of Barcelona.

Tomorrow we make our way to Valencia, but we will be sorry to leave this lovely city. We have enjoyed exploring the historic quarter, visiting parks - including park Guell, another part of Barcelona stamped with Gaudi's mark - and people watching at the beach while soaking up some sunshine. Walking along the marina was also interesting - incredible super yachts lined up gleaming expensively. There was one particularly large one named "kisses". We speculated over what kind of billionaire might name their marina-dwarfing yacht "kisses"!

The waterfront was crowded not just with yachts and tourists, but school children, Spanish teens, buskers, city workers on their lunch breaks, joggers and cyclists. Dale has been particularly fascinated by the African men selling knock off designer hand bags and sunglasses who lay out their wares on sheets with cords attached to each corner, presumably so they can make a speedy getaway with their sack of loot if the police show up to bother them. Unfortunately for Dale he has missed out on the spectacle of watching these entrepreneurs flee from Police on this occasion.