Barcelona - Spain

Barcelona is a busy coastal city with lots to do. I recommend getting a Hola Bon travel card; they are valid for various lengths of time from 48-120 hours. They cover all forms of transport and will also get you from the airport and back again. My travel card was for 72hrs and only cost 22 euros. It's great to help you get around the sprawling city and beats the aerobus with costs 6 euros each way to and from the airport.

FC Barcelona football stadium

I arrived to meet protests, following the one year anniversary of the Catalan vote for independence, which the Spanish deemed illegal. It meant that roads were closed and there were lots of police around.

I travelled between places via the metro. There are a number of different lines and the metro is clean and efficient.

I started at Port Vell, which is home to a column with a statue of Columbus looking out to sea. The harbour is home to lots of yachts. Rambla de Mar takes you across a bridge that swings to let the yachts through to a shopping mall and the aquarium. Port Vell is the oldest part of the Barcelona port.

At Diagonal (yes it's a real place name) I visited Casa de les Punxes. It cost 12.5 euros, which included the audio-guide. The guide started automatically as you entered each room, which was quite cool. It began with the legend of St George and the dragon, before going round the rest of the first floor. Then you take a lift up to the roof terrace and go inside the multiple peaks and tower up on top. It was another place with a great view of the city. The building was originally 3 separate adjoining homes, one for each of 3 sisters whose father had bought the plot of land. It was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and is an example of Modernisme. It was actually somewhere I found by accident, but really enjoyed the tour of the building and the roof.

The tower on the roof terrace

I visited Park Guell, which is a park complex created by the architect Gaudi, who also had a home there. It is located at the top of a huge hill - there are even escalators in the street to help you get up there. The view was pretty good though once you made it up there. It looked a bit like it was undergoing major restoration, but you could see a fair bit of the unique design of the park. You have the opportunity to visit the house that Gaudi lived in for 20 years, bought for him by his father.

View of Barcelona from Park Guell

Gaudi's house

The Sagrada Familia is a Church which is still being built. It was designed by Gaudi and is still a work in progress. They hope to have it finished by 2026 to mark 200 years since building began. When you see the intricacies of the architecture you can understand why they are still going. If you want to visit inside the Church you will need to pre-purchase tickets online as the tickets had all sold out by early the same day I visited.

Across the road from this was a free F C Barcelona exhibition of posters. It was quite interesting to see posters from across time promoting the team. There are also lots of other shops in this area which can be visited.

I then went to visit Camp Nou - the home of F C Barcelona. There are a range of tickets you can buy, I had a flexible ticket for self directed tour. I got a 6 euro audio guide which I didn't really use - I either missed some of the numbers or it wasn't worth it. You begin in the massive trophy room and work your way around the museum and then out to the stadium. It was a brilliant afternoon out. 

Media - interview room

Press Room

The tunnel

Media display

Part of the trophy room

At Placa Espanya I went up to the 5th floor of the 'Arena.' It cost one euro for the lift to the top and back down. The top has a 360 degree viewing platform with restaurants at the centre. The view was amazing and gave a great view of the national palace. The arena also has an exhibition space and is a shopping mall at the lower levels.

View of the National Palace

The Arc de Triumf is a massive arch built in 1888 and is next to the Parc de la Ciutadella. The park was very big with lots inside, including the zoo. It is also home to a mammoth, sculptures, water features and lots of pretty flowers.

The Mammoth

Water feature

Arc de Triumf

I visited Glories which has another shopping arcade. It is also home to Torre Agbar which is a skyscraper built in 2003 with colours (think the Gherkin in London - it is very similar).

Torre Agbar

I had a night out where I had typical Spanish dinner; tapas and Sangria. Sangria is Spanish wine served cold with fruit (think Pimms) and tapas is a number of smaller dishes. I was very brave and ate everything (with exception of the chilli), which meant trying mussels for the first time. I found that food and drink in Barcelona was pretty good value.

Portsmouth and Gosport

Portsmouth is home to a historic dockyard which has lots to see. All attraction passes (£40) are valid for a year, so I went back before my ticket expired.

As is common in the UK the trains were on strike, so I took a National Express coach. I was pleasantly surprised - the ticket was significantly less than the train fare and it took exactly the same length of time to get there.

Gunwharf keys is the home of a range of shopping outlets, bars and restaurants. It overlooks part of the harbour, giving me a great view over lunch. I can highly recommend Giraffe World Kitchen as a place to eat, the food was amazing and the service was excellent.

I stayed at the Ibis Portsmouth Centre. It is a 15 minute walk from Gunwharf keys and as it is surrounded by University of Portsmouth buildings it has a good selection of night life nearby. It is also close to Portsmouth and Southsea train station and the magnificent Guildhall. 

Guildhall at dusk

Victoria Park is also near the hotel and is a lovely green open space, complete with an aviary. It is also close to Portsmouth city centre, which is full of a range of shops.

I also walked along a section of the millennium promenade which runs from Gunwharf keys up to Southsea along the sea. It's a nice walk with access to bits of beach if you feel like a but of sunbathing.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel memorial

Royal Garrison Church - the roof was lost during WW2

The historic dockyard is covered in the blog post I wrote last year. I went to the museums within the dockyard, my particular favourite being the Royal Navy museum with its collection of warship figureheads.  There is also an exhibit solely for one of the sails from HMS Victory which was damaged at the battle of Trafalgar.

HMS Warrior

Figureheads

The dockyard ticket gives you use of the waterbus to the museum at Gosport, however I took a little ferry for £4.60 return over to Gosport, the trip of which was only a few minutes long.

Gosport is home to the Explosion Museum and the submarine museum. The latter is home to HMS Alliance, of which there are regular guided tours lasting about an hour. It was very interesting to see the internal workings of a military submarine. There is also a little museum about submarines as well.

HMS Alliance

The Explosion museum came with lots of interactive sections. It has a range of displays of ammunition, ammunition boxes and a range of guns and torpedoes. The site used to be a gunpowder store, so there is a lot on the history of gunpowder and its use. It took a good hour to go round the whole exhibition.

Gunpowder store

My favourite sticker of all....

I also visited Fareham shopping centre and a small amusement arcade at Lee-on-Solent whilst on the Gosport side. The arcade came complete with a range of 2p machines which are always a fun way to loose £2 in small change.

Brighton

There is so much to do in Brighton and there is something for everybody to enjoy. The beach is the place that everyone flocks to when the sunshine comes out. As long as you don't mind a pebble beach and the cold sea it is a lovely place to sit and sunbathe.

The latest addition to Brighton is the 162m observation tower  giving a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. I confess I didn't go up it, but the other good way for coastal views is to catch a number 12 bus between Brighton and Eastbourne and sit on the upper deck.

Brighton is home to the famous 'lanes,' as well as Churchill Square shopping centre. The lanes are alleyways full of the more independent shops, whilst the centre is more main stream brands. There are places to eat in both places, so there really is something that will suit everyone.

Brighton is an hour's train ride from London Victoria with train links to Gatwick Airport. From the station it is one straight road downhill to the sea, with the shopping centre on the right about half way down. There are public car parks around should you chose to drive, but parking is not only tricky to find, but also expensive.

Brighton Pier is opposite the Sea Life Brighton in which you could spend a whole day inside looking at the wide range of sea life.

I am sure that there are lots of things missing from this blog post. I only went to the Brighton for a day at the beach, but there is so much to do it is somewhere you could easily spend a good few days. There are a fair few cheap hotels around the city centre.

Doughnut Groyne

There is also an arcade and fairground on the pier to keep the younger generations entertained. The pier also has a range of shops and has public toilets which is always handy to know.

Mayfield Lavender Field

Mayfield Lavender Field is open from June to mid September and is located in Surrey. It costs £2 for adults and is free for under 16s. There is a small car park onsite but it fills quickly, so you are able to park in a nearby sports centre for £5. There is a shop and cafe near the main entrance which were very busy. You are able to walk amongst the rows of lavender laid out over the field and there is lots of bee activity, so be careful. It is a very pretty setting and is a nice place to visit for an hour or so. These are my best pictures from my day out:

France: Cholet, Carnac and La Baule

So, I recently gate-crashed my parents holiday in France. I flew out to meet them as they had a car and were driving around part of France

Cholet was the home for stage 3 of the Tour De France team time trials. The days we were there very little was open, which was a shame as it had a shopping centre just off the town square. The shops had yellow mats out especially for the cycling and there was an exhibition of past memorabilia. Unlike when we had been in Nice there was no village for the Tour. On the day of the time trials the roads were closed and there were a collection of stands giving away freebies, but some made you answer a question first. The Tour De France is always preceded by a parade of caravans throwing free stuff from the floats. The floats are always pretty fun and people fight over the things that are flung from them. The team time trials were held over several hours with 5-minute intervals between teams. We stayed for about half of the teams as they pass by very quickly, although we were at a point where we could see them leave on one side of the road and arrive back on the other.

Cholet took it's preparations seriously

One of the many 'caravans'

One of the Tour de France teams

Next stop was Carnac, which is also a relatively small town with one main street. We were there for the World Cup semi-final game that France were playing and therefore quite a few places had closed. We took a little tourist train which took us through Carnac, along to Trinitie sur mer where we stopped to look at the harbour, which had a 1000 moorings and was full of yachts. 

Harbour at Trinite sur mer

After an ice cream break the train then took us to Les Alignments – a collection of Mesolithic stones all in straight lines. 

We visited St Cornely's Church. Legend says he was being pursued and turned his pursuers into stone (the megaliths know as Les Alignments). The Church has lots of beautiful stained glass windows and an intricately painted ceiling.

Portion of the ceiling

One of the stained glass windows

We also spent a few hours at the beach in Carnac which had very glittery sand. We also visited a biscuit factory and saw the chef rolling large sheets of butter into bread dough. There were lots of biscuits to sample and buy as well as souvenirs.

Our final stop was La Baule which was the biggest place we visited. There was a lovely Vietnamese restaurant near the train station which I would recommend. Most of the time here was spent on the beach, aided by men with carts going along the shore line selling drinks and ice cream and a number of bars are also situated on the beach. My parents went to look at U-boat pens and war memorials/cemeteries as there are lots of these around France as a result of the two world wars.

View of La Baule from the sea

There are 2 hypermarket chains in France which we enjoy – Carrefour and Auchan. This is the place to do all your shopping of French food and wine to take home as you aren’t paying tourist prices.

The other thing I love about France are the Patisseries. They open early every day with fresh bread and pastries. They are great places to pick up something for breakfast or to treat yourself.

Nantes airport is a very small airport, with nothing else apart from the duty-free shop, so if you are flying out of Nantes go prepared. I would recommend taking food and some entertainment or you may end up getting very bored.