With plenty of time this morning I had the best & possibly the only sleep in I’ve had since Nuremburg. Really needed it & Amiens was so quiet, plus it was an apartment, like a home would be. I had to completely clean the apartment to remove any signs of my stay there (as I usually do … cleaners would love me) & return the key to the magical place of the stairs around the corner for the lock box. I was able to do a well-timed laundry wash too last night & everything was dry. Another win!!

Boarding the train at Amiens was a breeze due to being a regional station & then another hour later I was at my favourite Garde du Nord Train Station .. NOT!!! From my last experience in getting a domestic rail connection & the taxi mongrel the other day I decided to see more of Paris by walking the 4.2klms to my Tim Hotel for the overnight stay (40mins) which is quite close for my train trip tomorrow. Once I checked in & paid a smallish city tax (€15), I headed off to Garde de Lyon Train Station to test out my train connection for 7.40am departure to Barcelona (6.5hrs) tomorrow. This station is much more simplified & has only 3 Halls (all huge though). My Hall 1 has 23 platforms & I have confidence all will be well tomorrow. The station is only 250m away too.

23/10/25 Everything went to plan (proper planning) & caught my train on time at 7.41am but I didn’t sleep much at all last night. Travelling around 165 -300klm/hr in aircraft seats was comforting but alas, I am still travelling backwards which I’m beginning to think is a European thing to annoy tourists (joking). For the 6.5hrs of travelling there is plenty of farmland to see & I had that rare moment when I thought I had no-one sitting next to me. Bummer .. a guard came up with a man about 60 & he just plonked down, almost hitting me. Well .. the smell of him! A mixture of garlic, old eggs & body odour. Wow!! It was dreadful. Appeared to be Spanish, even his hands were dirty. He was on the train for some 3hrs or so until we stopped at Beziers when he got off. A lady took his seat & she was French, but I wished I had disinfected the seat for her. She never spoke to me either, so I’m on a roll of silence, I guess. We had 20 coaches on our train plus 2 food carriages & 4 engines. That works out about 390m & that is how long some platforms are in Paris & the like. Our carriages were also double deckers too.

There wasn’t much to see along the way with the tracks having high levee banks parallel to the tracks possibly to limit the noise pollution of the trains but every now & then an opening would appear. Southern France was quite fertile & full paddocks of ploughed topsoil & soon to be harvested crops but as you got closer to the Spanish border the whole thing changed & became worse the further south you go. The soil turned to sandy gravel & quartz & grass basically disappeared; it was more like semi-arid land & maybe in a period of drought by the looks of it. The train route consisted of the 1st stop being Lyon, then Montpellier, Nimes, Beziers, Narbonne, Perpignan, Figueres, Girona & finally Barcelona. This train terminates at Barcelona, so everyone is getting off & the platform is full of rushing masses.

Back to the arid lands of Spain, there was some farming done, but on a difficult scale. Lots of the farms needed considerable work done on them. Some I saw seemed they literally walked away from the land with deserted housing & barns. Of course, Spain went mad with their solar & stupid wind farms & they were scattered in clumps & with the high winds I believe that’s why 85% or so weren’t operating (wind speed limited). These windmills could be put up anywhere as there seems no sensitive environment to deal with; such is the arid land. Remember, Spain had a country wide blackout about 2yrs ago, but they had French nuclear energy to fall back on at some unknown cost (repayment). We in Australia are putting these shit things everywhere & the windfarms are being installed through pristine forests, koala habitats, logging forests & dinosaur period rainforests without any environmental impact legislation applied. My hometown area of Nrthn NSW just 3months ago was shut down for selective logging, yet these farms just plough through with utter destruction. Also, when we have a major blackout & it will come, we can’t call upon our neighbours for energy. We are all alone, an island. Complete shutdown. End of this rant … for now!!

Arriving in Barcelona was beyond ridiculous with gusty high wind forces. Despite this & remembering my disgusting taxi ride in Paris, I decided to see more of Barcelona by walking to my hotel, some 4.1klms away (40mins). I walked & by-passed broken limbs scattered all over the streets. They were everywhere & the wind was still around at 7.30pm when I came back into my Hotel Espana Ramblas after checking in. Wind gusts seemed to be around the 80klm mark. Of course, Google Maps played up & sent me about 4mins out of my way but eventually I arrived at my hotel after seeing quite a few sights & landmarks along the way, such as, the Colosseum-like Arenas de Barcelona shopping Centre which looked more like something else in its stature. The Placa d’Espanya statue within a busy roundabout. World Trade Centre building adjacent to the marina. The monument a Colom dedicated to Columbus, again in the centre of a roundabout along the marina. Finally arrived at my quite swanky Hotel Espana tucked away in a very narrow street lane (being renovated over on the left side) & even has a doorman to open the door. The room is rather swish to say the least. A shower you can dance in. King sized bed. Once settled, I started out walking around a bit more to get my bearings & seeing lively eating areas & community buzz at the Plaza Real de Cataluna Espana & the overcrowded fish, meat, poultry & fruit/veg markets. With the daylight fully ended I completed 15,374 steps = 11.98klms for the day. Tomorrow, I have a tut-tut city tour set for tomorrow morning 9am sharp & The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia tour set for 1pm.

24/10/25  WOW, WOW, WOW!!!Of what I have seen today but first I must divulge what started out on the day. Best sleep ever in such a great bed. Showered & off to a great breakfast in the hotel buffet. I was certainly looked after, treated like royalty, really. As soon as brekky was over, I started out to my meeting point, some 2.5klms walking away for the Tut-Tut City Tour (3hrs) to map the main points out on this wonderful city. Of course, I’m never late & was some 20mins early & I had the correct address & confirmed my arrival on Google Maps. Not a sign of a tut-tut, nor a representative. as time went on, I sent text msgs, emails before & after the 9am deadline but yet, not a response. I waited till 9.25am, yet not a response. I also sent an email at 5.57pm & still no response. Eventually I received an email from Get Your Guide operator on 26/10/25 stating they have received my request for a refund due to no tour provided. I received 2 more emails the next day requesting my tour feedback, so I couldn’t let that slide by. Finally, the 30/10/25 (I have since left Lisbon for Dublin) I received their email confirming my refund is being processed to my account. Such a slow response.

With much frustration of no Tut-Tut Tour I left the meeting point at 9.25am & headed towards my next tour, The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia some 15mins walk away & with that I saw a lot of landmarks & fine buildings. Castle of the Three Dragons (castle built for 1888 Exhibition World Fair, now cafe & museum), Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, Arc de Triomf as the entrance gate to The World Fair in 1888. Sant Pau Recinte Modernista Hospital (1902-30), which is a hidden gem of spectacular, not far from Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Viewing from the front entrance is amazing. The clocktower is 62m high. I didn’t get to see inside but people are stating it is of disbelief the imagery of architecture & finishes inside. It is now a knowledge centre for various educations of health, etc. Only a kilometre away from the Basilica is La Monumental is another Colosseum type – 1914 art noveau bullring building now used for concerts, etc with a bullring museum. You can go inside & even stand on the sand ring. Due South of Sagrada Familia is the Cathedral of Barcelona, another great architectural Gothic church (13 [1298] -15 centuries) built on previous churches foundations. The dome was completed in 1913. This cathedral has so much history & was operating well before the 13^th century in previous buildings.

Of course I’m far too early, so I did a bit of crowd watching in-between looking at this marvelous structure disbelieving what I am seeing. After a while I circumnavigated this amazing place by a few city blocks to get more views of Barcelona living. Found the best coffee place I’ve had since Nuremburg & the staff were thrilled with my response. With more walking & getting nearer to my strict 1pm entry time I checked all correspondence with this tour. Lots of restrictions (like an airport & dress regs). I soon discovered my entry point is on the other side of this construction monument (rear of the structure) & headed off to be early again. I helped a foreign lady who was confused to find Entry Door C which is my access entry too. I was standing, people watching again & I looked over towards Entry C where she was waving & stating to ask the guard to come in earlier than my time allowed. That worked a treat with the guard & now I’m entering at 12.30pm, bonus. I wasn’t able to catch-up with her again to say thanks. The below photo is a teaser for my next blog on Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, this amazing structure of disbelief.

I’ll end my Blog #14 here for I have more to write about this magnificent basilica & far more photos of this brilliance & a little more of Barcelona. Many thanks for reading my blogs. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.