Max On Tour The Prequel

Noticed some very tech savvy people from Poland, Scotland and Spain have managed to source my site WELL DONE .Hope you will keep on reading. I have toured Spain and Scotland and both are wonderful destinations - which I would dearly love to revisit. Having never been to Poland, it is definitely a country I would love to explore .(especially as my daughter in law's family all come from Poland.)

BARCELONA

We flew Emirates A 380 from Perth ,Dubai and on to Barcelona ,gee that's a big plane .I have seen the physics but it is still beyond me how these monsters manage to get airborne. Why is it that with all the advances in audio the pilots messages all sound as if they are being made from on the plane wing with a child's walkie talkie!

Grabbing a taxi outside an airport is normally relatively easy ,the problem is having sufficient funds to pay the cheating bastards.( Barcelona is not unique here in our experience Prague tops the leader board).

As a rule of thumb use this rough calculator, baring in mind that the kind cabbie was disabled his meter and he has your luggage hostage in his vehicles boot!

Using F for symbol for reasonable fare for the distance travelled apply to the

Formulae below.

F multiplied by number of cases multiplied by Pi plus a few Euros for a TIP and there you have it. {if you only have one suitcase multiply the above by two}

The Bride ever prepared had our hotel name written in her micro travel note book she told the driver the name of our hotel he nodded and quickly set off . [of course he did- he was on a fixed price]

Having accelerated to about seventy miles per hour he again asked the destination.

The Bride had already stowed micro book into her extensive travel folder.

With good grace she rummaged around and retrieved said book.

This time she spoke very slowly and a little louder to help our driver out.

"P R I M E R O - P R I M E R A "

I am uncertain if it was The Brides Scottish accent or the fact that we were staying at a new hotel a bit out of the town centre but our driver was still none the wiser !

He gestured for the micro book and after the wife passed to him. He reads the address, nods passes the book back. All this at seventy miles per hour. All credit to the man.

We arrive! The bride who had built up a solid suntan for the trip was very pale .

Taxi man helped us with our luggage applied above formulae for fare and relieved me of most of my Euro stash.

The Hotel was a beautiful, newly renovated property located in the professional district of Barcelona .Nearby you could find many Tapas Bars, Restaurant's and Cafes. The ones we were able to visit were all top class.

We made our way to the waterfront next day and found a restaurant not far from the large Christofer Columbus Statue overlooking the harbour.

Great views- but I will not name it for reasons that will become obvious.

Having been fleeced by the unscrupulous taxi driver yesterday, I opted for a simple dish of Mussels. The Bride went upmarket with something more sophisticated as I recall.

The unwritten rule in Bunbury {where I hail from}is if you cant smell the ocean do not order seafood. As I could both smell and see the ocean I thought what could possibly go wrong?

Wrong choice Max just made it back to hotel- then up in painfully slow elevator , had trouble entering room as you do at these desperate times.

Just made it before the most putrid explosion ever happened down below .Ten or so minutes and six courtesy flushes later I deemed it safe to move.

Here is a little tip for you all.

An open plan loft apartment looks absolutely great at first glance.

However if one of you experience the mussel misadventure as I did your marriage / courtship will be over!

My crook guts persisted for three more days along with the putrid odour.

Throughout The Bride was non sympathetic apart from the first Thirty or so seconds "you are being ridiculous " ,"not again" and "you are joking" "that's disgusting" were oft used comments during my convalescence.

Good news all round after Four days I was all good ,The Bride being very stoic had regained her MOJO and her beautiful smile that had gone missing reappeared.

MAPS

Upon recovering I asked directions from receptionist to nearest hop on hop off tour depot.

"Go out the door, turn left, then go up a little way to park, turn right and you will see it on the other side of the road its only five minutes"

We set off with map in hand where the receptionist had marked our start and finish. Twenty minutes passed and still no closer to our target map was turned upside down sideways and snatched between us. It was getting heated so I quipped .

"Obviously that girl has no idea what five minutes is she most probably never done the trip or done it on a Vespa"

The Bride snatched the map from me overbalanced and fell much to the delight of the locals enjoying a previously quite morning at their local park. Ever the gentleman but biting my cheek I offered my hand which was quickly pushed aside .As The Bride quickly scrambled to her feet I noticed her cheeks were somewhat flushed.

We were beaten- we retreated, found our way back to hotel and ordered a taxi into the city centre.{we are still having same interpersonal issues when using google maps !}

Onto the open top bus for a whip around of City sights and there were heaps .Antoni Gaudi has several buildings which are marvelous. Apparently the style Is Catalan Modernism - I was thinking more LSD or some other mind bending substance.

regardless of my opinion I would highly recommend a look.

Max On Tour

Next Post Sunday 22 Sept

PS

We used Booking .Com to book Primero Primera Hotel [great boutique hotel but a little bit expensive now]

Flew in with Emirates Airline -always good.