Day 18 - Monday 30th May

One of the reasons we decided to come to Barcelona this weekend was that today is a bank holiday in the UK and so John had the day off work. It meant he could have a long weekend holiday here. It ended up being four days for him because he took Friday off too (and arrived late on Thursday night). The rest of us have been here since Wednesday.

Although Suzy and I fly out for Croatia tomorrow night, Nicky John and Amelia needed to fly out today for London. Once again we slept in. We were starting to worry that there might not be enough time to go out for breakfast before they had to leave for the airport.

Our favourite cafe around the corner was open this morning and so we had another great breakfast. This time we managed to get a table on the footpath rather than having to eat inside. The waitress and waiter seemed to want to spend most of the time playing with Amelia.

The car arrived for Nicky, John and Amelia at about 11:30. When we got back upstairs to the apartment, it seemed remarkably quiet. Today needed to be a washing day and so we took advantage of the washer and drier on the balcony outside our bedroom.

Suzy wanted to go out shopping and so I was happy to stay in the apartment to update my blog and photos and to read the Herald. There was left-over bread and ham for my lunch.

After Suzy got back, I decided to go for a walk to get some exercise. I went to Catalunya Plaza and then down the full length of La Ramblas to the Christopher Columbus monument. La Ramblas was busy as always. I saw six or eight street performers at various points along the plaza area in the middle of the avenue.

In the evening we caught a taxi to the luxurious W Hotel on the beach at Barceloneta. Yesterday they'd told us they allow the general public into the hotel's pool area after 6pm and so we took advantage of this to have a beer and a sangria.

Next we walked along the beach promenade to the Place de la Mar which is another wide avenue lined on one side with cafes and a plaza next to the marina on the other side.

The guide on our "glimpse of Barcelona" bus tour had recommended a particular cafe there. It turned out that it didn't open until 8pm and so we had about 20 minutes to relax and take in the atmosphere of the area. It was worth the wait - it was a very nice meal.

When we got back to the apartment at about 9:30pm, we heard a noise out the back. When we opened the balcony door, we saw a woman on another balcony banging a saucepan with a spoon. I thought she might be trying to get her cat to come home. Soon there were lots of other people doing the same - banging a saucepan with a spoon. Suzy did a quick Google search on my laptop  and found out that this is in support of the current student protest in Barcelona.