The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain

Well it doesn’t really, we didn’t see one drop of rain. Only blue skies and soaring temperatures. After a dodgy flight with Ryan Air (be aware; no seats are allocated, mad rush ensued which resulted in us not being able to sit together) we arrived in Girona and spent a night here, a beautiful historical town with a lively town square where we had an abundance of tapas and drinks. The next morning we made our way to Barcelona, and with my own personal Spanish guide (Helen) I felt safe in the knowledge that we could communicate with the locals… only to find out later that the local lingo is Catalan, a derivative of Spanish. Barcelona is an amazing, hot, bustling, tourist mecca. The architecture and vibe of the city stems from the brilliant architect Gaudi who masterminded the Sagrada Familia which is still being built today. We purchased two days travel on the Bus Turista which has three routes through Barcelona and gives a running commentary on each of the plentiful tourist attractions and historical buildings. Our three days were too few in this place, you need a lot more time to soak up the atmosphere and visit each attraction!

Whilst in Girona Helen befriended our taxi driver who proceeded to tell us to go north towards the Costa Brava and Roses after our time in Barcelona. We took his advice and proceeded to Roses by bus from Barcelona. On our arrival we checked into the Hotel Rosamar. We ditched our gear and headed straight for the beach where hundreds of French and Spanish tourists flock to during the holiday months (in fact, Spanish was even more useless here as most people spoke French). We found a nice spot on the beach and stripped down to our swim wear. That’s when I noticed how tanned everyone was and how pasty white we were; think of two solitary dull stars in the night sky, well we were those stars. We ran into the water pretty quickly to hide and body surfed that afternoon. The next day we hired a bike and rode around the white sandy bays, this was exactly how you would imagine the Mediterranean to be, beautiful villas overlooking sandy bays and crystal clear water. That night we went to a restaurant where a beautiful singer and an keyboardist where putting on a show. After a few too many wines I convinced Helen to dance with me, we were the only ones on the dance floor but thankfully the song finished soon after. The singer then came over to our table and convinced me to join her (after losing Rock, Scissors, Paper against Helen) where I proceeded to dance with my two left feet. She quickly gave up on me and grabbed Helen who did a far better job than I could ever manage. On our final day in Roses we took a cruise along the coast, where we were allowed to swim off the boat with its own built in water slide! It was a good relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of the major cities we have been visiting, however, if you do come to Roses make sure your room has air conditioning. We sacrificed a teeny tiny room for a bigger room with no air conditioning (hotel is being renovated) so we had to sleep with our sliding door open only to be woken each morning by seagulls which had the loudest most annoying squawks ever.

D