Saturday 3-10-15
We had a slow start to the day which may have been a result of one too many beers and sangrias. We had bought a multi-ticket for the trains and took a trip down to the beach front and harbour area. We spent some time looking at the huge boats and ships and then decided to take the Funicular over the harbour and to a high point of the city. In hindsight we may not have done this as it took so long. First we had to line up to buy a ticket. Then we had to line up to take the lift up to the Funicular and then we had to line up again to get on the Funicular. There were only 2 gondolas running so it was quite a wait. The views were spectacular but we took the trip over and then returned straight away rather than go on up to the second Funicular. We walked back along the water front and then found a place for lunch. We had delicious tapas. We then did a quick walk along the main shopping street of Barcelona. We have had beautiful warm weather and we did not pack enough t-shirts so we both needed to buy one. Barcelona is a lovely city with wide streets and it also has the architecture and symmetry of Paris. It also is cleaner than Paris.
After our purchases we headed back to our accommodation to find a laundromat. We had done  some washing the pervious night and it was not dry. We found one close to the hotel. When we went in we put our things in a dryer and a lovely man came up to try to explain that the machine would not do our washing. Unfortunately he could not speak english and we could not speak Spanish. The only way we could explain we only needed the dryer was to get him to feel our wet washing. He then smiled and understood. The Spanish people seem to be much happier, friendlier and a bit more lay back than the French. After finishing the drying we headed off to the "Font Magica de Montjuic " or magic fountain. We took a train to the fountain and arrived around 7.45pm. There were many people gathering around, taking up vantage points so we thought the display would start soon. The crowd kept growing but we had a great spot right in front of the fountain. Finally the show started at 8.50pm but it was well worth the wait. The fountain was lit up in a ray of beautiful ever-changing colours while the streams of water were forced up in different patterns at an incredible rate. This was all done to music. It was like the music and fireworks shows we've seen but much better. We've never seen anything like this in our lives. The show went for about 20 minutes and it was free. We returned back to our hotel around 11 pm after stopping for a lovely dinner (tapas again)