Another smooth train ride to Barcelona, this time in “comfort class” for our 6 and a bit hour trip. The biggest differences between tourist and comfort class were the additional leg room and free wifi (worth it in my opinion for a longer trip).

Barcelona has a population of 5,868,912 people and is Spain’s second biggest city (behind Madrid). When I had a look at what Barcelona is best known for the list went a little like this: FC Barcelona, Architecture, Festivals and Street Parties, long sandy beaches, good food, good weather, the quality of life, famous artists and writers, political demonstrations and for being a smart city and start up hub. We are here for five days and I am sure that I’ll be able to tick some if not all of these off this list 😀.

Our first full day here saw us walking the streets, stopping at interesting landmarks to get a sense of the city as well as having a look through the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia also known as Barcelona Cathedral. The Cathedral was constructed from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.

It is really beautiful and imposing and like many of the landmarks we’ve seen it is being updated but this is the first time we’ve seen advertising of sponsors on the scaffolding. To be honest it was a little distracting.

Unfortunately the audio guide wasn’t as good as the others we have had and so it was a bit difficult to work through the building as you are never quite sure if you are at the right spot looking at the right thing which was a shame. We are going on a Barcelona walking tour tomorrow and so I’m sure we’ll get lots of good information about the Cathedral.

As part of your entry ticket you can take a lift up to the rooftop and it gives you a view across the city. There is quite a bit of scaffolding some of which you have to walk on, which explains the sign before you get in the lift that says school groups aren’t allowed up here. Unfortunately the view is marred a little, because of the work being done but I can imagine how good it will look when it’s finished. I can see a gargoyle or two hiding up here, actually I’ve seen a few lurking around the city, I’m not sure why I am surprised it is a Gothic cathedral after all.

Tonight we caught the Metro (for the first time here in a Barcelona) to Palau Sant Jordi an indoor arena to watch Robbie Williams in concert. The venue was built for the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. It was a good experience with a very quick train ride and then a 20 minute walk to along with the thousands of other people going to the concert.

By the way it was awesome, our seats were great (even though they were only purchased a couple of days ago) Robbie’s supporting act was a fab Melbourne band Laufhaus who we all really enjoyed.

Oh and yes I have two things to tick off the list. Great architecture, it is everywhere I can’t wait to learn more about it and FC Barcelona, Robbie talked about the football team during the concert complaining that they were too good😂 and of course we saw them in action last week against Real Madrid.