04.06.2008 - 04.06.2008 16 °C
View Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (Spain) on IsleHopper's travel map.
We arrived in Barcelona in the afternoon after three hours' flight from Dartmund (Germany). The weather was heavy and it was raining. The Barcelona airport was very busy, we picked up our backpacks and left the terminal building and walked over the bridge which connects it with the train station. There are automatic machines which dispense train tickets and there were railway staff who assist you, in your own language, to buy tickets from these machines. Very smooth and friendly service which we also found on every Underground (Metro) station. The train fare for two was 7.20 euros which allowed us 10 journeys on the trains and buses for that day.
From the airport we disembarked at Sants station. Our train to Pamplona was leaving at 23.00 hrs so we had the whole day on our hands. We checked our packs in the locker and took the Metro to Plaza Cataluña, the centre of the city and its famours Rambla de Flores. The Rambla has always been known for its stalls of Flowers and sellers of Birds in Cages, its Cafes, Tapa Bars and Rrestaurants and thousands of people promenading from one end to the other. However, I was dismayed to see very few stalls, the old and popular Cafes were replaced by Fast Food chains and Brand Name shops and Boutiques. Wherever you go, MacDonalds, KFC, Subway and Starbucks stare you in the face.
Another change was to see South Americans running bars. People from Uruguay, Argentina and other countries have settled in large numbers in Spain and it was not the same eating Spanish Tapas in these places. In fact we found only one typical Tapa Bar selling Galician tapas (Pinchos on a toothpick), in one of the side streets. But the city was full with tourists, young and old and streets were bustling with people in the heady atmosphere Barcelona has. In fact whole Spain is bustling with tourists and visitors. We had a coffee, a beer and three tapas and paid 20 euros. Expensive, and were further surprised at the high prices of food, when we started walking from Pamplona toward Santiago de Compostela.
I will write about Barcelona and its many attractions, at the end of my chronicle of our journey, when we stayed there for three days, on our return from Santiago, and before our flight back to Germany.
Posted by IsleHopper 07.07.2008 12:34 PM Archived in Backpacking | Spain
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