SYD-BKK-xHEL-BCN-VLC-MAD-xHEL-BKK-SYD on QF, AY & Renfe Trains in J

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We grabbed a taxi at BCN airport and made our way to one of 2 Hilton hotels with almost identical names. We were staying in the financial district. Hilton Hotel Barcelona - Hotels Barcelona - Central Barcelona Hotel

I had been very careful to get the right directions as I could see the prospect of the taxi driver just wanting to pull a shifty and go to hotel via the wrong one.

We got in the taxi and sure enough he played dumb. So I really spelled it out and gave him the evil eye. If he pretended one more time to not know then I was done. As soon as our eyes locked I think he realised I wasn't out of 'dumb and dumber to' and he understood where to go. I knew the fare would be between e30 to e35. He did it with u28 on the meter. So I gave him e30. Job done without much fuss.

Gold status with the Hilton saw us upgraded from whatever poverty room I had pre-booked to an exec king with lounge access.
Whenever the hotel check-in person utters the words "upgraded" SWMBO then backs away from the counter with a smile. So we got lounge access, wifi, 2 water daily refreshed, breakfast in the main restaurant (they closed the exec lounge for breakfast over Xmas), 2 shirts dry cleaned and 1 movie.

The room was a standard euro Hilton room which could have been in any city.
I didn't bother with pics of it as they are just generic, clean and functional.

Main breakfast area. Lots of variety but over the week it didn't change once. The staff were very helpful and friendly and couldn't do enough during breakfast. The food was the usual Hilton spread - scrambled eggs, bacon, beans, tomato, sausage, cold cuts, smoked salmon, fruits, breads and yoghurt + an Asian section as the JAL crew stayed here we noticed (plus other airlines).


Exec lounge on 4th floor.
Generic with very generic nibbles at happy hour. There was red and white wine, beer and soft drinks + coffee. No basic spirits. We would come back from touring around 5:30pm, wash up, pop in at 6pm (until 8pm) for a pre-diner red or four then depart for dinner with that nice warm feeling. When the lounge was closed they would often shut the coffee machine off. So if you woke at OMG o'clock due to time zones you had to go next door to Starbucks for a cuppa until the main restaurant opened for breakfast. Oh well.


Lobby bar - they know how to make an excellent dirty Martini


Seating just behind lobby bar. Wifi was free in the lobby so a lot of people seemed to be using wifi and sitting here. Now that most other major chains are offering free wifi I can see Hilton will need to step up and offer a basic service.


Lobby area TV room / fireplace


The hotel is in a great position near a metro station, shopping centre, tapas bar and the hop on / hop off bus stop. The metro in Barcelon works a treat. I would stay here again provided the price was right.

TBC

 

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Some Barcelona shots.

A random street.
I love streets where the buildings a re-connected above by walkways.
This was part of the old city which was fortified with gates.
Sometimes it is just nice to walk around an old part of the city taking in the time of day and stopping for a cuppa.


Palau de la Música Catalana
Concert Hall. Beautiful building outside and spectacular inside.
Palau de la Música Catalana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Inside with so much natural light. Beautiful to be able to sit under it in the afternoon sun. Very peaceful.


Antoni Gaudi buildingc- just one of many.
Barcelona is littered with buildings, parks etc by this man.
He was freaking ahead of his time. His design works are second to none.
What was really impressive was that he took the occupants of the building into consideration with plenty of natural light etc.
If in BCN then worth checking his works out.


Water show at night. Runs on weekends and is free. Very popular.
There is also a large fountain that has coloured lights and changes with the music (colour and water flow). In short, worth seeing.

I was initially "oh no, not another fountain show" as once you've seen the Bellagio in Vegas then isn't everything else second rate?
The answer is, no. This was worth seeing. Or may be it was all the red in our system that made everything seem so much better.
But at least I was getting healthier by the day drinking red wine vs bubbles.


TBC

 

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This is the jewel in the Barcelona crown IMHO.
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família
Sagrada Família - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Build by Gaudi and still a work in progress. This thing is impressive.
If in BCN, then you must see this sucker. Pre-buy tickets on the interweb and you skip the line. You are given an entry time slot you have to enter within (a 30 min window for entrance). The pics don't do it justice.


Lots of constantly changing colours depending upon time of day / light streaming in. He also used geometric shapes everywhere.


looking up at the ceiling


General shot


View from the roof top


Well enough of Barcelona. We covered a lot and saw just about everything on the top 20 hit list. We both agreed Barcelona was a very enjoyable city with excellent public transport.

For the metro you never need a timetable as trains run about every 2 - 4 mins in peak and about every 6 - 8 mins off peak with pricing about AUD1.50 per trip (casual pricing). We only caught the bus once as the metro is so much faster.

Food was always good and prices reasonable.
The recession was still very noticeable but this seems to have subdued prices. For most of our meals we'd venture 1 block off any main tourist alley and the prices would be half i.e very normal with quality increasing. Alcohol pricing would go from e2.50 per glass to e0.99 per glass at many places for the same brand.

And what was really surprising was a few places even did e1.50 'specials' with wine or cup (yes a cup) of beer + 1 tapa for the after work crowd to get them to stop off on the way home (near our hotel between say 4pm - 10pm).

We loved the idea of tapas and just how easy it was to tour, stop, have a glass of red and 2 small plates then move along. As a tourist it made touring fun.

Our Bankwest mastercard was used through Barca without issues ... no surcharges (not even at the hotel), no rejections and no fraud. Though we were very careful and never let the card go for a walk on its own. At just about ever restaurant / tapas bar, the waiter would bring a portable terminal for payment to the table. The tip was to also ensure they were billing the mastercard in Euro vs AUD which each machine seemed to want to default to doing. So we always said "Euro please" as we handed them the card.

Now time to grab a train and head to Valencia.

TBC

 

[JessicaTam]

Glad I have settled in. I am enjoying the commentary and photos immensely. I am looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[love_the_life]

Brave! I don't think I'd even consider something like that. We find the mid 2 seats to have enough local storage and then the above bins are always empty.

But you probably haven't been married as long as us :mrgreen:

 

[love_the_life]

We enjoyed Barcelona very much on our one visit, on the list to return. We did a food walk with guide through the market, fantastic. And the Gaudi buildings were great.

 

[nonpop]

Barcelona to Valencia
Train: Local Barca metro connecting to the main Renfe station where high speed trains connect.
The metro is well signed and the Renfe station was easy to find.
Here you can see directions for whatever location you were looking for.


We came up from the bowels of the metro to a modern train station. It was large. The first thing I noticed was it was like being at any airport except they had Platforms and not gates. So once my brain go into that rhythm we were all good. And it was also about 9am and hence we were sober.



We had purchased our tickets about 2 months in advance using the man in seat 61 website for Renfe site translations. Booking that far in advance meant 1st class tickets were about the same coin as economy. They seemed to sell out quickly as when I price checked a few days later it seem all the cheap fare buckets had sold out.

Ok now to find our train and where to go. Just like looking at a flight board. All too easy indeed.


Our train was scheduled to depart at 10am.
I thought if we arrive at 9am we'd be fine. I was wrong. I saw a line waiting to go through check-in and then down to the platform we were scheduled to depart from.

Looking at the line I thought "oh no - we're in trouble. No way this line is going to move in time, and get on-board and find overhead luggage space as they'd surely shut the flight about 10 mins prior to departure". My brain had gone back into flight mode (literally) and I had forgotten all our previous euro train trips. May be it was survival mode. I hate not having overhead luggage space above my seat. And dammed if I'd be boarding late.

So I joined the line. And surprising it moved quick. Real quick. 6 agents scanned BPs and a roaming agent with a handheld device did the same to help people that appeared to be flustered. When we got to the agent to have our BPs scanned about 9:15am he waved us away with a flick of the hand and started to grab the BPs from the people behind us.

'Not gonna happen' I told myself. "Sorry, what about us? Any problem?" I said looking right at him waiving my BPs around like I'd just won the lottery.

He replied with another waiving me off motion "too soon" and then pointed above his head to another signboard. The penny then dropped. There was still another 2 trains to depart from that platform before our train to Valencia. We sheepishly walked away.

9 am was way too early and after the trying-to-board too early challenge I needed coffee.
So we went to find the coffee shop. Mmmm caffeine was procured and drunk. And it was very drinkable. And then we waited until 9:45 when boarding started.


(this is a shot from when we first joined the line and I was a little concerned)


TBC

 

[nonpop]

BPs scanned and down the escalators from street level to the platform.
When we hit the bottom of the escalator another agent was there asking for your carriage number.
He then directed you where to stand on the platform.


Our train arriving. She arrived at about 9:50 and departed at 10am sharp.
When the train pulled it was very quiet and gentle.


First class cabin. The Barcelona to Valencia route is a tier 2 route it seems.
So the trains are a bit slower and not as 'nice' vs Valencia to Madrid (pics to come later in the journey) Thought still very comfortable.
It was clean, spacious and lots of overhead luggage space. There was a toilet at the end of each cabin.
Seating was 2-1 in F and 2-2 in Y.


Single seats


Seat Space


TBC

 

[nonpop]

More seating shots


Overhead space - looks deceptive but those racks above will hold a standard size large check-in suitcase


Arrival into Valencia


The train journey too about 3 hrs or so and was also uneventful.It stopped at a few stations along the way to pick up more passengers. In the end the F cabin was 100% full. Part way through the journey a conductor came along to re-check out BPs with another hand held scanner device.

There was a food cart that came around where you could buy snacks - sandwiches, tea / coffee + soft drinks etc.
The train ran to the minute on time.

Trains pick-up and drop off in the centre of a city and have no heavy security requirements and no need to check luggage nor wait for luggage. If only I could have earned QF SCs I'd would have been as happy-as. (I had toyed with the idea of flying intra-Span but in the end my best judgement kicked in and trains won).

TBC ... now time to check out Valencia.

 

[nonpop]

But you probably haven't been married as long as us :mrgreen:

Ok I'll bite ... how long ?

 

[love_the_life]

Love to hear about trains. They're our preferred travel mode in Europe - so easy.
Great pics and terrific info.

 

[nonpop]

We enjoyed Barcelona very much on our one visit, on the list to return. We did a food walk with guide through the market, fantastic. And the Gaudi buildings were great.

Yes we probably did the same tour/s. Barcelona just had such a good 'feel' to it. Plus the climate was great even over Xmas with only needing a light jacket through the day. I would happily go back as well. though from booking to actually going it was tough to watch our dollar crash and burn against the euro. I just looked at things as euro = dollar when I was working out if something was expensive or not and ignored the currency conversion.

 

[love_the_life]

Ok I'll bite ... how long ?

Woof?
41+ years so we don't need to sit together :mrgreen:

 

[Pushka]

We enjoyed Barcelona too and are back there in July this year. We enjoyed the HOHO bus but as MrP had been in the Olympic Team in 1992 the Bus went past the Athletes Village and he showed me his room (well, pointed out the window that is).

But we didnt see much of Gaudi's work other than on the bus. I intend to make up for that.

Taking the Europe train from Paris to Barcelona. I love the trains too - Eurostar was the best - London to Paris in 2012.

Dont listen to the Dame (love_the_life) - she holds hands a lot.

 

[nonpop]

Woof?
41+ years so we don't need to sit together :mrgreen:

Okay then you win.
I've just ticked over 14 yrs so may be you need to consider a marriage thread where you dish out wisdom to all us noobs

 

[nonpop]

We enjoyed Barcelona too and are back there in July this year ... But we didnt see much of Gaudi's work other than on the bus. I intend to make up for that.

Yes and don't rush it would be my tip. Initially we did then went "hang on, this is really impressive stuff once you take a moment to let it sink in". His stuff wouldn't be out of place today with access to modern technology built in along the way. So we then allocated extra time for his buildings and park. He also designed furniture.

Dont listen to the Dame (love_the_life) - she holds hands a lot.

Ok good tip

 

[nonpop]

We only had about 4 days in Valencia so it was going to be a whirlwind tour of duty.
Therefore I selected a little hotel smack bang in the centre, 50 paces from a metro and about a dozen eateries below.
It was called the Hotel Sorello. A 3 star joint with good reviews on Trip Advisor. And it lived up to the reviews. Phew.
Having a metro so close is important when I travel as it means touring is s easy and quick. Plus if you ever need to get back to your hotel, blam it is quick and easy.

After exiting from the Renfe high speed train, we then just went down a few platforms and connected to the local metro.
I had contacted the hotel when in Barcelona and asked which line I need in what direction. Easy-as.

So at Valencia I bought a couple of travel 10 tickets from the machine (using my Bankwest mastercard again) and away we went.
1st stop, hotel.

Here are just a couple of Valencia shots.

From a church that is reported to hold the Holy Chalice. This is the view from the room top


Yep that is supposed to be in behind the metal 'shield'.
http://www.catedraldevalencia.es/en/el-santo-caliz_historia.php


Picture in the room to the left of the shot above with the 2 priests.


Random pic from a museum we went to. I like these. I was trying to find the call button inside. SWMBO thought I was an idiot and walked away shaking her head at me as I made aircraft references and jokes.


Paella ... they say Valencia is the home of the Paella. Well we enjoyed t very much with a bottle of red.
In fact it made a good late night snack. As it would take about 2 mins to make it meant you could have a quiet drink prior without being rushed. And affordable. About e25 for Paella and a bottle of drinkable red did it nicely for 2 people.


TBC

 

[get me outta here]

Enjoying this immensely and have remembered to put it on the list. How many days did you spend in BCN?

 

[nonpop]

Enjoying this immensely and have remembered to put it on the list. How many days did you spend in BCN?

Thanks for the positive comments. One never knows if people are wanting to poke their eyes out with an blunt airline knife or are actually playing along at home as well.

1 full week. Could have spent 2 easily ... plus there were day drips we wanted to do that couldn't be done in the time.

And for Valencia 4 days is enough.

 

[drron]

Woof?
41+ years so we don't need to sit together :mrgreen:

43 years here and I would be in serious trouble if I booked us into the single seats.
We also like AY and Barcelona.