Madrid to Barcelona. June 17

First day of eurail! How exciting guys!

Elise wanted to see Picasso's 'Guernica' at the Reina Sofia gallery that was right near the Atocha Renfe train station where we would leave for Barcelona, so Ash waited with the luggage while Elise ran across. A quick 30 minutes later we were headed for our boarding gate, so official, before which we had all our bags run through a baggage scanner and our tickets checked. We then queued at our platform gate for our tickets to be scanned before descending to the platform to find our carriage and seats. The train itself was pretty nice and also pretty quick to get to Barcelona. On arrival we had to catch the metro, two lines, both with only a few stops. The metro was not the best for luggage, much like the London Underground, there would be points of only stairs which we had to haul our bags up. We are getting good at this though, we promise! We got to our station, Joanic, in the more northern part of the city, but still pretty well located, and walked the few blocks to our apartment. Sadly again, it was quite high up. This time we had to battle five flights of stairs. It was v tough and our host volunteered to take Ash's bag up before realising it was in fact a solid 20kg. Let's just say he struggled and regretted that choice.

Outside Reina Sofia (couldn't get Guernica)

Atocha Renfe station

After settling in, we decided to explore the area just west of us, Gracia. This neighbourhood is popular with the locals and not so touristy, having apparently the best restaurants and general food. We found an amazing Italian deli and decided to buy some cheese and meat and pomodoro to make a yummy pasta. Also we found a great gelato place nearby and ate that in the little square the shop was in. On our way back to apartment we found a really cool jewellery store, with handmade necklaces, rings and bracelets and we couldn't resist adding to our collections. Just beneath our apartment block is a bakery, which is just perfect for us (in case you forgot, we love bread/anything related to bread). We got a really good loaf of wood fired bread and these incredible croissants filled with a vanilla custard and covered in chocolate. AMAZING.

Ash strollin' in Barcelona

We found a crystal man

Back in the apartment we cooked and relaxed on our couch. Our apartment is huge, with both of us getting our own rooms! We attempted to watch some TV, the only English channel was Disney channel, so that became our viewing for the next three days.

We had to get an early night because Elise is flying to Bilbao in the morning and Ash was preparing for a really good sleep in.

Xoxo A&E

P.S. After Ash turned off the lights, ready to sleep, she got a huge shock/fright/became concerned. Ash's room was painted and in the daylight was just odd scenes with people and animals and other things, seemingly random. But in the dark, a vast portion of the painting glowed in the dark. Ash's WHOLE ROOM lit up. It was very very weird.