Masefield & Spain

I have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain

John Masefield, 'Beauty'

30th May 1999, Sunday 1502hrs. Bright. Still Barcelona! I'm writing on a bench in Barcelona-Sants – one of the city's principal stations as people queue for tickets, hurry for trains, wait for trains and generally make geographical progress. Which is just what we're not doing. I got the train times for Valencia yesterday (which just happened to be the last day of that timetable being valid). Our Interrail ticket says supplement fares have to be paid on IC (Intercity high-speed trains) and Talgo (v. posh intercity).

Everyone here says supplements are payable on just about everything, including non IC or Talgo trains, and to top it all off, IC and Talgo make up 99.9% of trains that cover any kind of distance at all. The atmosphere between Gemma and I is terrible. We feel trapped. I expect an inspector to come along in a second and denounce me for not having paid the bench supplement. We can't afford to start paying supplements for travel – that’s why we bought the Interrail ticket in the first place. I haven't got enough money for this! There's a train in about two hours (we've been here since midday) to Alicante which is on the monitors as a regular train but stops in Valencia. If you get off in Valencia, you have to pay a supplement. If you don't, you don't. I think.

Hardly anyone speaks English, and everyone who works here that I've asked, "Hablas Espanol?" of has replied "No.". We’re IN SPAIN! MY comprehension of Catalan and their comprehension of my Spanish, AND my vocabulary and ability to actually speak Spanish in the first place are all being stretched to the limit.

Anyway, we’re going to (try to get to) Alicante.

Yesterday was a really enjoyable day. We had a bit of a lie-in after being severely sleep-deprived at 'Camping Cala Gogo', got up, breakfasted and walked to Gaudi's masterpiece and ongoing 100 years in construction, 'La Sagrada Familia'. Only eight of the designed 18 towers are standing so far, and construction started in 1887. It was breathtaking, and awe inspiring to imagine the finished spectacle. We then caught the metro to 'Parc Guell' and Gaudi's house. It was fantastic and I got a bit snap-happy! A new film was about £2.20 so no worries there! From there we went back to the Pension to get changed for the evening.

Barcelona, the night before the Grand Prix, on Saturday night. Oh yes.

We went down to the 'Telefonica' F1 tent and a band called the Azucarillo Kings were playing – they were mad. English and American songs with Spanish lyrics – Blur's 'Girls and Boys' (Un hombre sexual), REM's 'Losing My Religion'...

Met a great looking ½ Italian, ½ Swiss Spanish student – danced, walked...cool. Got to bed at about 2:30am.

We descended the grey marble steps of the station and caught the train, full of uncertainty as to our destination and the supplements we might have to pay.

We had to pay. The train was incredibly smooth and fast, racing along the coastline which danced back and forth as we travelled. Sun through trees which lined the track and the glinting of blue water in the distance is my overwhelming memory of the journey.

The colour of the country was changing. France had been lush green paling as we moved south, and the hills of Spain were a bleached tan brown, with rocky protrusions from the crests of the land. The heat was in the air now, not just from the sun in the sky. The warmth of it surrounded you, flowing around bare limbs in breezes and rising from the earth or the tarmac of the cities.

We arrived in Alicante and emerged from the train station in the early evening onto a wide boulevard packed with flowers, and we caught a bus into the town centre to the pension we had booked. After that nightmarish night in Barcelona trying to find somewhere to stay without calling ahead, we weren't taking any chances. Our second floor room had rich red terracotta tiles on the floor, white walls, and the orange pine framed windows opened above a central courtyard in the middle of the building.

The best thing though, was the roof terrace. The pension was about three blocks back from the seafront esplanade, and towering above the town on a bulging sandy coloured rock outcrop, was a castle.