4th April 2011: Barcelona Day Eighteen.

It’s a cloudy haze that I awoke to this morning and I’m not talking about the weather here. That 24-hour bug still has a slight hold on me but I’m not going to sit around the apartment for another day, Barcelona awaits.

The streets are bustling with activity; there are plenty of people around. Michelle is playing tour guide and introducing me to places of interest as we walk through the city.

We visited the local market, which is an experience in itself where you can sit at one of the stalls and have a lovely seafood meal washed down, by a nice cold beer or wine. Not that we got to try, my queasy stomach suggested that we wait to enjoy the market another day.

We continued to wander the streets and found our way to the Barcelona Port. There was a big crowd gathered and we realised that we had stumbled on the conclusion of the Barcelona round the world yacht race. The winners, a couple of French men, were given a right royal welcome with all the fanfare. They even had fireworks rigged up to the giant statue of Christopher Columbus, which were relatively ineffectual; after all, it was midday.

That statue is amazing and the perfect monument for someone like him. His pointed finger is approximately half a meter long, which gives you something to gauge the scale of it. Couldn’t help but be impressed.

Looking out over the harbour I noticed cable cart which made its way over the water and up into the nearby hills and made a mental note to revisit the ride later in the week.

The afternoon was spent shopping looking for shoes for Michelle and generally browsing the local shops. I had managed to get through the day and was starting to feel normal again by the time we got home. We had done some homework during the day and had discovered a local Flamenco dancing and singing venue that we planned to visit the next night, something that I was keen to see before leaving Spain.

Just a final note to say how lucky I am that I had my nurse looking after me during my 24-hour illness. Cool towels on my forehead to ease the temperature, Panadol when I could finally keep something down and regular lemonade fixes during the day and night were just what the doctor ordered, thanks Michelle xx.