Yesterday was our last morning in Zaragoza... It featured a huge stroke of luck, and a contretemps.

The positive development was that I was able to secure my medicine supply for the next few weeks. (Changes of plan, on account of COVID-19 -- more on this later -- had cut me off from my drug stash. I can't tell you how much I resent being dependent on these things, but hey...)

The pharmacist was initially reluctant to help ("you need a prescription; you should always arrange to bring enough with you"). I didn't push things. I was prepared to accept I wouldn't get anywhere. So I just explained I'd had to change my plans, and had been caught out. She then disappeared, made a phone call -- and came back with the goods (at a very reasonable price into the bargain). So grateful to have had this obstacle removed...

The negative development was that security at Zaragoza railway station confiscated our folding picnic knife... Yes, the knife that has been with us on our journeys for 28 years. Yes, the knife that has travelled on umpteen trains in Europe, including all those that have recently been part of the Lisbon Loop... But, buried in some obscure corner of the internet is apparently a stipulation that the blade of a knife can only be so long. Ours was longer, and on trains to Barcelona this matters... Sigh...

Anyway, having given up the knife, we climb on board the train. It's a "medium-distance" service, and it takes about two hours. By the first stop, Lleida, the announcements are in Catalan, as well as Spanish and English. The route is quite dramatic, with sweeping views of mountains, hill-top villages, and eventually, the Mediterranean, which we haven't seen since leaving Izmir last year.

In none of the (many) permutations of the Lisbon Loop did I plan much time in Barcelona.

I've been reading for years that way too many tourists visit this place, and the locals are well fed up with them.

I have no desire to exacerbate the problem. But it would have been a very long journey if we'd gone from Zaragoza to Barcelona, and then straight on to Paris. So we decided to overnight here.

We stayed, as usual, in an Airbnb. Any kind of accommodation is massively expensive in Barcelona, so for the first time ever, we opted for a "room in a flat" rather than the "entire apartment". (And, actually, this manifestation of Airbnb creates fewer problems for residents than the kind where whole apartments are set aside for the tourist trade, thus sucking them out of the local market.)

We somehow misunderstood the description, though, because we thought we were getting our own bathroom, and we weren't. But hey, it's only one night, and the location is great, the people are very sweet, and the Garfield-shaped cat is quite a character.





I had no ambitions to do any of the super-famous sights (because they're super-expensive). Instead, I'd reckoned on doing an early-morning walk today to the Gothic Quarter (this area has some interesting vestiges of the Civil War, and the daybreak hours are always the best time to see any city). But having become acquainted with our living arrangements, we figured we'd wake everyone up if we left the house at the crack of dawn, so we decided to do our Gothic Quarter walk yesterday afternoon.

Frankly, not enjoyable.

Way too many fellow-tourists. In large packs.

Way too much commercialization. Very in-your-face.

A huge pity, as it looks as though this was once a fascinating and atmospheric area. But so many old towns on this trip have been so much more rewarding...

Still, we did get the chance to see the square named after George Orwell, whose Homage to Catalonia is perhaps the best-known account of Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War (even if some argue it's not an entirely fair one).

We also saw the Plaza San Felipe Neri, the tragic site of a civil war bomb attack that killed 42 people, many of them children.




Of course, we appreciated the opportunity to walk some of the famous streets of the city. And our (decorously not-so-early) morning walk today, in the not-so-famous area of Sants, with only Barcelona's dog-walkers for company, was very pleasant.









It has been interesting to see Catalan signage all around us.


And once you've left the tourist haunts behind, food is surprisingly affordable.

So the short time we had here was well spent.

But I'm not sure I'd rush back, or stay longer. I just don't know how you could arrange to enjoy the city's unique attributes without vast crowds and/or vast expense.

At 2 pm today we boarded the train to Paris. You get another hour in Spain, as you head up through Girona and Figueres (birthplace of Salvador Dali). You get some fabulous views of the Pyrenees.

And then you cross into France, and Iberia is over...

Till next time...