Saturday, 14 June 2014

Espalion - Albi - Carcassonneto Barcelona 23rd August 2010

We went for another walk around this picturesque little town before we left.  We posted some post cards and bought a map of Barcelona area.  This was today’s destination…..a long way away.
We drove back through Rodez but skirted the town centre and on to Albi for lunch, another very old large town.  It was the first time in France that we had a sandwich which was not made from a very hard crusty roll.  It was more like a pizza base, with chicken and salad filling.  We went down by the old bridge and ate our lunch.
Back on the road – next destination was Castres which we also skirted around and then also around Carcassonne and then to the coast near Narbonne.  From there on we were swept along on a freeway with very heavy traffic.  The toll on the French side was 10.90 euro thankfully we managed to go through a manual lane.  We soon crossed the Spanish border.  There were barricades and border officers but no-one worrying who went where.  Another toll also manual 1.38 euro on the Spanish side.
The roads were packed and the signage made no sense to us. We eventually got to Barcelona area but couldn’t find where to go.  We pulled into the first place we could find where we could stop.  It happened to be the driveway gates of the Jewish Cemetery.   We checked our maps with little luck and headed into Mont Juic area.  This used to be all the Jewish Cemetery and means Jews Mountain.  It was transformed for the 1992 Olympic Games.  It holds many of the sports arenas etc. but since that time some areas have been converted into public sports and relaxation areas.  And so we took a few deep breaths and back out into the traffic……
We were right in the middle of the peak hour traffic.  We saw an empty parking spot around the corner from a hotel.  Somehow Pop shrunk the car into the spot.  As we walked towards the hotel we thought it might cost 300 or 400 a euro per night it looked so posh.  After the day we had had I said I didn’t care.  When we walked in we thought it would be even more than our original guess.  I asked the tariff 99 euro per night with a special which included breakfast 116 euros for the room per night and garage for the car.  Yipee..we booked for two nights.
We were amazed when we saw our room – a suite really.  The bathroom was huge with a full size bath a separate shower and a toilet and bidet in a separate room of the main bathroom.  The bed was a true king size with one long pillow across.  There was a lounge area and a dining area and a marvellous view across Barcelona. Magic.
We showered and went for a walk to see what we could get to eat.  We found a fish specialty restaurant - Pop ordered veal, I ordered duck, unfortunately I didn’t understand I had ordered duck liver.  It was gross.  Our waitress was like an old school head mistress – very stern – if you dared to spill a crumb she tottered over   immediately swept up the mess with a little brush and pan.  This action was accompanied with a look of scorn.  Other than that it was good – Pop enjoyed his veal which he shared with me – delicious.  It was a pair of happy travellers who returned to our posh suite and climbed into our enormous bed totally exhausted.




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