45 thoughts on “Greetings from Barcelona!”

      1. It’s not my kind of place either. I think we went there looking for an English-language bookshop because I’d run out of books to read. I don’t understand what people see in it, when there are so many other wonderful things to see and do in the city.

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      2. ExACTly. Did you find your bookshop? It seems most bookshops here have a pretty decent English language section – even here in the small untouristy town where our daughter lives.

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      3. TBH I can’t remember. It was back in 2010, and I had bought an early version of the Kindle to travel with but it was one disappointment after another and was almost useless because their website was so hopeless. I couldn’t find Australian titles or literary fiction and I got sick of wading through genre dross and gave up. I could have read a whole book in the time I wasted looking for something to buy.

        And although I’d downloaded some freebie classics, the Kindle had somehow renamed them so they were hard to locate in the Kindle ‘library’ and the feature that keeps track of where you’re up to, didn’t work for them at all. Not only that, we were not allowed to use the Kindle in the down time on the plane when all devices had to be turned off. (I didn’t discover that till I was on the plane, of course.) I get angsty on a plane if I haven’t got something to take my mind off the possibility of a crash, and the airline magazine just doesn’t do it for me.

        So I still needed books in English and though it’s true that many places have an English language section, it’s the same as the Kindle offerings: heaps of rubbishy genre, classics which I’ve already read, and US and UK bestsellers.

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      4. Oh dear? I’m not a fan of Kindle et all, so I always have to totter tound with piles of Actual Books. I also get lucky with book exchange cafes and the like, finding things I would never normally read, but ultimately hit the spot. But yes, reading while travelling is A Problem!

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      2. It wasn’t. Cancelled trains were a pain that day. And in view of the second train crash in Spain, all local services are suspended on the wider Barcelona network today.

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  4. I too thought it was La Rambla, but I was quickly set right. Actually my daughter and I quite enjoyed it and had a lovely HUGE glass of sangria whilst sheltering under a parasol from the rain and people watching.

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  9. I look forward to seeing and hearing more about Barcelona, as I was there for a short conference this past weekend at a hotel near the Gothic Quarter. I didn’t have much time for sightseeing but enjoyed a fun bike tour that took us to the Born Market (which I had just read about on your blog!), Parc de la Ciutadella, and the beach and harbor area. It is a lovely and vibrant city, and I hope to visit again. Yesterday’s flight departed early, but it was a bumpy ride home.

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    1. I’ll bet it was a bumpy ride. I hope you enjoyed Parc de la Ciutadella and were able to explore a bit: and hat you can visit again. Conferences are often disappointing in that you spend most of your time in discussions and plenary sessions and you could be virtually anywhere. But you explored a bit. Well done!

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      2. It’s not great, and the two train crashes have put a sombre face on things. Barcelona region is pretty chaotic today with all the Rodallies services off the tracks.

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