Country Number 8

The Glacier Express was as good as we´d hoped for. To get to the station, we took a local train from the bottom of the mountain where we were staying (incidentally, Benjamin had a much better second night on the mountain :) ). The station contained nothing more than a bench and a list of the train times and we had to flag down the train ourselves which was fun. The views from the Glacier Express were superb, even though it was overcast in places, and the engineering was spectacular, with an endless stream of viaducts, bridges and tunnels. We had a three course lunch on the train which finished with a magnificantly rich chocolate tart. Mmm...

We left the Glacier Express at Brig and caught a train up to Bern after a brief wander around Brig on a (successful) mission to buy a bottle of water. We then had a couple of hours wandering around Bern before our overnight train to Barcelona left at 9pm. We saw several interesting looking buildings and grabbed some food before the excitement of our sleeper train. We had splashed out on a compartment for two and, given the ultimate epicness of the trip, we were glad that we did. It was a very ricketty ride and both of us felt somewhat nauseous though I managed a decent night´s sleep - lying down evidently wasn´t as bad as sitting up! I woke up about 7 and we were at Narbonne in southern France. At 8.30, we were still at Narbonne and it was obvious we were never going to make Barcelona by the scheduled time of 9.43. In the end, it was about 1.30pm when we arrived. Benjamin wasn´t feeling great so we spent the rest of the day pretty quietly - so much for our plan of arriving in Barcelona and getting almost a full day of sightseeing in! However, we got our laundry done and walked to La Sagreda Familia to look around the outside in the evening so it wasn´t a completely wasted day.

Benjamin felt much better the following day so we were set for heading out. First we went to La Pedrena, an apartment block designed by Gaudi which had really distinctive architecture, different from anything we´d seen before. We really enjoyed that. Then we walked into the centre of town and looked around the older buildings, though it was about at this point that everywhere started to shut for lunch so we didn´t go inside anywhere. So we carried on down to the sea and indulged in some Haagen Dazs ice-cream, which was delicious. We also met up with Benjamin´s uncle, Chris, and his friends who were, coincidentally, on holiday in Barcelona at the same time! Afterwards, we headed up to Montjuic by means of a funicular railway and cable car. There were stunning views up there and a castle to look around. We also walked towards the Olympic Stadium which is there too. Afterwards, we headed back into town to eat at a Catalan restaurant and then bed it was.

We´re heading off to Andorra in a matter of minutes. It´s a three hour bus ride and neither of us is always comfortable on buses so I hope it isn´t too nauseating!