The Grand Tour. Arrival in Spain

Our coach to Barcelona left Perpignan at 12.00, and we were due to arrive twenty hours behind schedule.

Last night on the way home I'd spotted a Harmonia Mundi shop and was quite determined to spend some money there this morning before catching the bus. Unfortunately, shopkeepers in Perpignan don't keep what we would consider normal hours, and the shutters remained stubbornly down even after three re-visits.

All we could do when Carl joined me was stop off for a sandwich thing in a little place beside the canal. More lovely weather signalled our farewell to France, and we spent a super while with our sandwiches and pastries and coffees and fruit juices before heading back to our hotel to pick up our backs and check out before moving on to join the queue waiting at the railway station for the bus to Barcelona. We were fine when the bus arrived, and so were most of the people waiting, but one couple were almost in tears when they were turned away by the driver and refused entry because they hadn't booked tickets in advance.

We couldn't understand how a journey the length of what the distance indicators said could possibly take the four hours we'd been told the journey would take, but all was explained when we ended up stopping for forty minutes at Figueres (where a market was on and resulted in today's blip) and further stops at Girona and Barcelona Nord station before we finally got to Barcelona Sants and the end of the line.

We got to Sitges around 5.15, met tomorrow's marriage couple, checked in to our apartment, grabbed a quick siesta, had a bite to eat, went to the Meet & Greet event in a bar up the road and somehow stumbled back to our apartment at some time or other.