Date: 2008-03-02
To: Barcelona
Miles today: 0.0

Hi all.Rang my mother the other night and she came out with a startling revelation, even though I have been putting up photos for the duration of my trip thus far, she has not been able to access them. In fact her response was, "What photos!" For those of you who are like my mother here are some instructions on how to see the pictures I hve posted on this site. Down the left handside you can see some blue boxes, they are labelled with white writing saying Gear, Photos, About, and Stats. If you click on the photos box, then you will see the photos I hve placed online at this site. The first picture is a map of Australia, and then you can sequentially work your way through each picture. This is achieved by clicking on one of the 4 options at the top, just above the picture. The four options include, First, Previous, Next and Last. The one you will be most interested in is Next. If you prefer there is a drop down box above these 4 words, if you click on the arrow on the right side of the drop down box it will list the pictures by date. If you arrow down the list of pictures you will see one that is listed as Wednesday, February 06, 2008- Imperial Barges. This is the beginning of the pictures for my trip thus far. Then if you hit the next button you can sequentially work your way right through all the pictures of my trip thus far. or you have the option of using the drop down box to skip ahead. I hope that helped Mum, if you still cant work it out from that, then get your sister Vicki to give you a hand.I caught the train to Barcelona, I was in a small compartment with 6 beds in it, all occupied, it was rather squashy, I was on the top bunk, closest I will ever feel for what it must be like in the navy. Was not much room. Got a good night sleep, as the train rocked me back and forth, eventually got to Barcelona, and it was easy to get into the city, here the public transport is incredible, Barcelona has an underground similar to Londons, in fact so does Madrid, and it is so cheap to use. Some of the underground stations are massive, they have so many levels, the Giles brothers would have their jaws dropped if they could see the size of it all. The trains come about every 5 minutes, and they are all pretty much brand new, it is a great system, leaves ours for dead.Barcelona is right on the Mediteranean, and has a number of marinas. SOme great boats to look at, some huge ones that is for sure, and like our marinas back home most of the yachts are cruises. In fact the designs look very similar, and they are of a similar sze, mostly in the 30 to 50 foot range, looked at a list of some of them for sale, and most were of a similar design and class to what we sail. There are also some huge yachts of the greg Norman variety, for the millionaires. Being by the bay gives this city a relaxed and great feel. Althought the coastline and the marinas are not as spectacular as ours, nobody does a piece of coastline like us. The sand is failry gravelly, and does not have the raw beauty that we posses. They have designed a new big precinct down by the water, and compared to the docklands development in Melbourne it is fairly insignificant. I think the fact is that we are a super rich country, and there is only really Germany, Finland and a couple of other countries that have the money we have. We jsut have a smaller population so the scale of our economy is naturally smaller, but wealth per person, and how beautiful our cities are, and how well we are organised, we leave the southern Europeans behind for dead. It is not until you travel that you trully realise just how great Australia is.There is still heaps to see here, and it is a charming place, definitely a place that I have enjoyed immensley, the people are so friendly. Camp Nou, it is barcelona FC home ground, and I did not get to go on the tour inside it was closed, but it looks to be about the same vintage as Waverley, not very impressive at all, guess they dont seem to put the same dollars and importance into sporting infrastructure as we do. This is suppose to be one of the major grounds of Europe, I was really shocked at how run down it is, and it is built out in a very poor area. I walked out there, trying to do as much as I can, and feeling so much better, except for a few blisters. The streets are like Madrid very wide, eventually I wlked to the other side of town and saw the Sagrada Familia. It is another church, but it is only half finished and still being built, it was started in 1882, so they sure are taking their time, but it is so magnificent. Big call, but it is the most impressive church I have seen yet, I was really blown away, it is such a weird design, very unique. Another one of those things you just have to see, I saw it the first time on TV when they had the Olympics here, and was one of the main things I wanted to see on this trip and I was not disappointed.Eventually made my way back to the backpackers. Last night stayed in a cheap hotel, as it was saturday night and all of the backpackers were full, but got into one todat and booked in for 3 nights. Last night in my room I could hear the partying going on until about 7am, and then i could hear people throwing up in the bathrooms around me, some people obviously had some huge ngihts. Yesterday after I got in I was still tired, did not get a full nights sleep being on the train. SO went to bed at about 10am, and had a big sleep, and then went to bed at about 9pm after walking all afternoon and evening around the beaches and marinas. Got up about 9am this morning, and it was the best decision as this has been my best flu free day I have had thus far, even the nagging cough was far less than normal. I wonder how Nick and Nicole are coping with their flus respectively. I have no idea where they must have picked them up from, it is a great mystery. I am going back to the backpackers and having another early night. Hope mum survived bass Strait, looking forward to hearing the stories, maybe she might be booking a flight for the trip home...HAHA