Day 15 - Friday 27th May

Although, we didn't sleep as soundly last night, we managed to sleep in again. In fact, Suzy didn't get up until after 9am. John had arrived late last night after flying in from London and so it was understandable that they were sleeping in too. They were getting up just as Suzy and I left to get some breakfast just before 10am.

On the way back to the apartment last night, Suzy had noticed several cafes that might be suitable for breakfast. When we came to the first one, it seemed quite small. The tables outside were occupied and, when we went inside, we found the cafe was quite large. It turned out to be a good choice. We had baguettes, fruit salad and coffee.

Nicky and John took up our suggestion to go to the same cafe for their breakfast. We met them there later and we then set off to explore. The first stop was a nearby shop that sold a fascinating range of dried fruit, nuts, bread and cakes.

When we reached Catalunya Plaza, we noticed that the student demonstration had grown. In previous days, there were placards and a few dozen student protestors but it had been quiet.

Today there were many hundreds of demonstrators surrounded by a ring of tourists looking on. Although we kept our distance on the other side of the street, we could hear speeches and chanting. There were police helicopters hovering overhead adding to the noise.

We headed down La Ramblas towards the old part of the city. After a couple of blocks, we found a children's play area. We left Nicky, John and Amelia there while we went further into the old part of the city.

Nicky and John were booked to go on the same "glimpse of Barcelona" bus tour that we went on yesterday. The arrangement was that we would look after Amelia while they did the tour.

Suzy and I got back to the tour pickup location opposite the Catalunya Plaza at about 12:40pm. The demonstration had become larger and noisier. On the street next to the demonstration, there were four large black police vans. It wasn't clear to me whether they were paddy wagons to take people away or whether they contained more police. There were a few police in riot gear standing next to the vans. At that stage, they seemed quite relaxed.

Nicky, John and Amelia reached the meeting point at about 12:50pm. Just as they arrived, we heard explosions from the plaza that sounded like gunshots. This was enough to get the tourist onlookers running away but it didn't seem to disturb most of the students. The tour guide with the orange umbrella told us it was tear gas.

More police cars arrived. The tour guide with the orange umbrella didn't seemed to be particularly worried but the man behind her was beckoning us to move back and "get that baby out of here". At that point, Suzy and I grabbed Amelia and ran in the direction of apartment leaving Nick and John to wait for their tour.

Originally Suzy and I had intended to take Amelia for a walk while Nicky and John went on the bus tour before taking her back to the apartment for a sleep. These plans evaporated instantly. Our only goal in life was to get Amelia back to the safety of our apartment.

As we crossed the first intersection, we saw five or six more black police vans waiting outside the big city department store. A few seconds later, another van screeched to a halt behind them and we saw more than 20 police in riot gear  running down the opposite side of the street outside the department store with batons drawn. More police cars raced past them towards the plaza.

By the time we had travelled to the end of the block, we noticed that the police had closed off all roads leading to the plaza. The only people getting through were more police cars, policemen on foot and journalists with cameras running beside them.

There were plenty of tourists like me taking photos of the dramatic scenes. Most of the locals (who weren't involved in the demonstration) were screaming abuse at the police as they went by.

It was a relief to get back inside our apartment. We rang Nicky to see if they were OK. She said they were still waiting for their tour bus to arrive but they had been moved to a different location to wait for the bus.

Amelia didn't seemed to be at all fazed by the commotion - as if to say "I'm fine provided I'm with grandma and grandpa". She enjoyed her lunch and went down peacefully for an afternoon nap.

Then it was our turn to have some lunch. We'd already bought bread on the evening we arrived and so I went to the small supermarket across the road to buy some sandwich filling.

When I got back to the apartment, an email message came through on my laptop from the Australian embassy in Abu Dhabi warning of an increased security risk to westerners in the UAE following the death of Osama bin Laden. Naturally, we'd registered our travel plans with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs' SmartTraveller website before we left Sydney. We plan to go to Dubai for four nights on our way back to Sydney from London.

That was the last straw. I decided that I needed a drink and so I opened one of the bottles of wine that we'd bought on the first evening in Barcelona.

Just after 3pm, we got an SMS message from Nicky saying they had finished their bus tour and they were getting some tapas for lunch on the way back to the apartment.

When they returned to the apartment, John said that, after we'd left the plaza, he saw riot police moving into the demonstration and using their batons to beat students - even those who had their hands in the air. He wasn't impressed by the police actions.

This evening we decided to walk to the Sagrada Familia which is one of the main attractions in Barcelona. It is a church designed by Gaudi to have twelve huge towers. Although it has been under construction for almost 100 years, some of the towers are not finished yet because of lack of finance.

The church is 2.7km from our apartment. Yesterday I'd blown the data roaming limit for the day on my iPhone plan from Vodafone UK and I still had data roaming turned off. I let Nicky guide us to the church using a tourist app for Barcelona that she had downloaded onto her iPhone. It was an easy walk because there were no hills. Although I was the one who had a knee operation recently, it was Suzy who had some problems with her knee.

It was worth the walk. From the outside, the building is imposing despite the scaffolding. Inside it is breathtakingly beautiful. The atmosphere is the result of a large open space with a marble floor, tall columns, stained glass windows. There are modern elements such as a circular elevator in one corner that you can use to get to the top levels (if you book in advance).

On the our walk back towards our apartment, we stopped twice. The first time was for John to buy a Barcelona soccer jersey. We watched while the shopkeeper applied the name and number of one of the Barcelona soccer stars (Messi) to the jersey. There is a big soccer match tomorrow night at Wembly stadium between Barcelona and Manchester United. The people in Barcelona are very excited about the game. You often see people wearing the Barcelona team's colours in the street.

The next stop was a children's playground. While Nicky and John looked after Amelia in the playground, Suzy went to a nearby shoe  shop. Finally we stopped at the cafe where we had breakfast this morning for a dinner of tapas dishes. It was an excellent meal.