Byron & Barcelona

Oh, lovely Spain! Renown'd romantic land!

Lord Byron, 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'

27th May 1999, Thursday 1305hrs. Cloudy but Windy. (Somewhere between Narbonne and Port Bou – the Spanish/French border)
Camping de la Cite took a while to find, but it was worth it and then some. Practically deserted and pleasantly hot and sunny, with – a swimming pool which we took FULL advantage of in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, in order to use the swimming pool, I had to change into one of the pairs of trunks provided by the campsite. Gemma swanned past in her own costume, and I disappeared into the changing rooms after selecting the least stained pair that looked anywhere near my size. The pool was worth it. I don’t think I’ve contracted anything. We met an English couple from Southampton, who invited us over for a drink in the evening. We took the tour of La Cite, sadly in French. The guide mistook my frowning concentration for rapt and total interest, rather than the confused loss of any understanding that it actually was. He kept gesturing at me, and instead of telling him, I opted for the wimp’s way out, and nodded, looking interested occasionally as thought something surprised me. I didn’t want to get caught out, so I slunk near the back of the tour group, hoping like hell he wouldn’t ask me anything. We walked the half-hour bus ride to the train station in twenty minutes, bought some very cheap Kronenbourg 1664 for 26F and went back to the campsite for a convivial drink and chat till about 1am. As it was our last night in France for a while, we had a great, freshly made and baked before our eyes pizza each, which was a bargain for 50F seeing as it was about 14” across, was covered in cheese, bacon and hams with an egg in the middle and tasted divine. Today we woke up in good time for our train to Barcelona, discovered our luxurious campsite cost half what we thought, and headed into Carcassonne to get some pesetas. Which, we found, was impossible. We’re heading into Barcelona, in fact the whole of Spain, without a single peseta. Should be interesting... 1230: Gemma and I have sighted the Mediterranean! We’re also in the shadow of some mountains high enough to have snow on them, if not exactly snow-capped. The journey so far has been great fun, and I’m really looking forward to Spain.