What a disaster today was!

The forecast was for rain in the morning but clearing from the south by lunchtime. There was no chance of flying, so Wayne and I decided to go to Barcelona. The day was doomed from the start. We decided not to take the bus basically outside the front door, but to drive to Figueras to take the train. I’ve only been to the train station there once, but was convinced I could find it again. Half an hour later I asked a passerby and found I was on the wrong side of town. The signposting in Figueras was clearly done by the local kindergarten – when existent totally random. We got to the station eventually, but had to wait for over an hour to get the next train, which stopped at every chicken coup from here to Barcelona and took over two hours. On the way, it started to rain…

First stop was Sagrada Familia, the crazy Gaudi cathedral. I had been waxing lyrical to Wayne about how great it was to climb the towers, fantastic views, etc. We paid our 11 euros but the inside of the cathedral is full of scaffolding, so we didn’t linger long and headed for the tower stairs. They were closed due to rain! No warning before we paid, no refunds. What a scam! 10 quid to see a lot of scaffolding, and a bit of cathedral.

By the time we left, it was pouring, so we went to the nearest bar for lunch and we lingered there until we could face the rain again. By this time the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightening. We made it two blocks, but despite our rain jackets, we were getting wet so we sheltered in a cash point vestibule for half an hour while we watched the roads turn into rivers. There is no drainage in Barcelona, it just flows down to the sea…

The day was getting on by this time, and we decided on some indoor activities, but this meant walking to a metro station. Two minutes walking in the deluge had us pop into an Everything is 1 euro shop for disposable plastic macs to wear over our rain coats. Our tops stayed relatively dry, but our bottom halves and shoes were sopping. I was wearing trainers and felt I had two mobile puddles with me.

We were going to walk past La Pedrera on the way to the metro but despite knowing where it was and seeing the roof of it in the distance for some reason we walked past it without actually seeing it. Since we had failed to do anything successfully other than lunch, we threw in the towel and went to the train station to go home. Soaking wet, all we wanted was to get home and changed, but the next train wasn’t for over an hour, at which point we were then told that due to adverse weather conditions all trains were delayed. It was a long, long day!

See photos of today.

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