Great things about living in Barcelona
Last weekend we had family visiting us; Isabel’s brother Juan, his wife Montse and their eight-year-old Daniel. We had a great weekend. Errr at least after Friday night when Juan, Dani and I made a trip to Ikea to get some wardrobes for Edmund’s bedroom. The flat packs just about squeezed into Juan’s estate car/van thing. When we got back home we man-handled the things into the lift (they fitted with millimetres to spare and lots of cursing at the lift doors). We were sweating buckets and swearing buckets by the time we’d got all the boxes into the flat…
We then headed off to Ronda de San Anton to meet up with Isabel’s cousin (also called Isabel) and her daughter Marina (seven). We went for horchata (it’s a cool mily drink made from nuts) for Marina and beers for the rest of us. Time flew and it was around 3am by the time we got back home.
The next morning - Juan had a parking ticket! In Zaragoza they don’t pay to park on Saturdays, but here in the centre of Barcelona it’s a big money earner for the Ayuntament. More swearing followed… the annoying thing was that Juan had already been down to his car that morning to move the seats back and the ticket must have been slapped on in between him coming back up to the flat and all of us heading off… to the beach 
We drove northeast to Caldes D’Estrac in the Maresme - a great beach that Isabel and I have been to before by train (the train station is right beside the beach). Anyway, the place was totally parked up by the time we got there, but Juan managed to negotiate a space with a local who was loading up his car. The beach is fairly deserted and ther’s a great family atmosphere. We spent a few hours there before heading back to Barcelona. In the evening we headed down through San Pere to the lovely relaxed cafe atmosphere of C/Allada Vermell. It’s always a wonderful place to sit and relax under the trees and sip a cold beer.
Sunday was a reminder of why Barcelona is such a great place to live. Another sunny day - we headed up to the Parque del Labirinto - almost in Colserolla. It’s a wonderful park with beautiful flowers and of course the maze; where we managed to get lost - at least Dani found the way out first. Entrance is free on Sundays! Then we caught the metro back down to Parallel so Dani could get a ride on the funicular up to Montjuic and then down on the cable car to the beach at Barceloneta. We spent some time at Montjuic watching people diving in the huge swimming and diving pools up there - an incredible view with the backdrop of the whole city below. There was the usual 30-minute plus queue for the cable car, but it does give spectacular views of the harbour. When we landed at Barceloneta, we walked back to the Palau del Mar for a late lunch at La Gavina (Paella, Fideau, great tempura prawns and croquetas…) then we walked back home and watched the British Grand Prix (recorded) before Juan and co headed off home.
All in all a fantastic weekend (apart from Ikea).
