All good things come to an end.

Regrettably the last day has arrived. We met up for breakfast at 9 am. Everyone had a great nights sleep, despite thunder and heavy rain during the night. After breakfast we return to our room to repack and rest until checkout at noon. We will have 6 hours to wait until we need to head to the airport. The girls are not keen on going outside as it is hot and humid. Will probably wander around air conditioned shopping malls, have lunch around 2 and maybe wait back at the hotel until time to go. It has been a great holiday, plenty of laughs, food, and adventures.

See you all soon.

This blog has been provided courtesy of Costalotta Tours.

Singapore gardens

We wandered around the shopping mall beneath our hotel, but all shops don't open until 10.30 to 11 am. We have a bite to eat around 11.45 and afterwards head off to the hotel in case our rooms are ready. Luckily, the rooms are available. We check in and decide to meet again at 4 pm, giving us time to have a few hours sleep and a shower. We meet up again and all are feeling much better.

We head off to the gardens. It is hot and humid, but when we enter the cloud forest. it was cool. When we first entered we were faced with a waterfall which cooled the area. The plants and flowers were fantastic. After a couple of hours we headed off to Satay by the Bay. It has changed a bit since we were there last. A bit more upmarket. We had three jugs of beer and quite a few satay sticks of beef, chicken and prawns. It was a great night. Head back to hotel for an early night.

Singapore

Just a quick report to let you know we have arrived safely in Singapore. It is 6 am and we all feel a little tired. We are resting at the airport before heading to our hotel, don't expect to be able to get into our rooms until much later. 

Update: Get to hotel around 7.30 am. Rooms not available until 1 pm. They have a comfortable waiting room which has coffees and eats and we will rest there until everything opens.

Goodbye Barcelona

FCan't believe we have reached our last day in Barcelona. Tomorrow we fly to Singapore. The weather has improved a little, around 22 degrees but cloudy with the occasional rain drops. We get up late and don't head off until after 10 am. We have targeted three areas where we wish to go. With great tracking skills we locate all three places and a few additional ones. The girls are well in to shopping mode and progress is slow. We accomplish a few purchases along the way and then head back to where we stayed last time and have tapas for lunch at an outdoor table. We amble our way back to our apartment with a few more purchases. We will have a quiet afternoon as we need to pack and make sure all the alcohol has been drunk! 

Sayings for this tour include: it's really happening, Mr Crispy (elderly American who was always sun baking), 30 and 31 (always the last to arrive), the vibe - Mabo; who would believe ........

Barcelona has been great. Where we have stayed has been in a fantastic location, easy access to many areas. 

We finish off the alcohol with chips, and argue about what to have for tea. Luggy wants pizza, the rest of us decide on Burger King. It is raining heavily and the boys are tasked with going out. Luggy gets pizza and Burger King. After dinner the girls want dessert. Another argument develops over whether we have magnums from Abu's supermarket or maccas sundaes. Everyone but Luggy has magnums, he sticks with maccas.

We are now having a lightning show and thunderstorms with heavy rain. We have all packed and will be off to bed shortly. It is 8 pm. 

Montserrat

Last night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant -ginos. We arrived at 9 pm and everyone at the tables were female. Us boys were unsure of what we had entered. In any case the food was fantastic. We all had a great meals and wine - three bottles of a lovely Tempranillo. When we left at around 11 pm there were people still coming into the restaurant. We had a great night, Ann had a better night.

This morning we head off to Montseratt. We have to be there at 8.30 am. The weather is cool and cloudy. We are a group of about 20. The drive to the Mont is about an hour. Once there we have free time until 2.30. Early it is quite cool up on the mountain. We plan to use the funicular to get to the top and walk down. However the drivers are on strike and Ann, Ross, Luggy and I decide to walk as far as we can and Karen and Kaye visit a museum. 

At about 2 pm it starts to rain and ends up raining the rest of the day. We have been lucky with the weather, but it has finally caught up with us. We leave at 2.30 and head off on the cabs and wine tour.

We visited the Pares Balta vineyard and cellars. Our guide a lovely young lass who was very passionate about their wine was fantastic. During the tastings the grandfather came out and regaled us stories about his wine. It was a great day and after sampling a number of wines we bought some to take home with us - back to the apartment.

On the drive home it rained continually. We got home after 7.30 pm and decided to have in house tapas from the cheese, meats biscuits and wine we had.

Can't believe we have almost finished. Tomorrow it appears it will be a shopping and relaxing day in preparation for our flight home.

Shortly after standing in the magic circle, Karen miraculously threw her walking stick away!!!!!

Sagrada Familia

Last night we stayed in and played cards. Kaye had brought a pack of cards so we played pontoon. We had a great night with plenty of laughs, pretend bets only.

We had a sleep in this morning as our tour today did not start until 1 pm. We had planned to leave about 11.45. The girls wanted to have a look at the dept store across the road and I wanted to confirm  where we had to pick up our tickets. We left at 10. I went to the tourist office and they were a bit vague, but I noticed the line for the bus had about 30 people lined up. I went and found the girls and suggested we should leave earlier. So we went back to get john and Ross. John had just gotten out of the shower. When he had finished his sss, we went off. By the time we got to the bus it was three times the length. We eventually get on, get to Sagrada and find where to pick up our tickets. 

While we have been there before, there have been changes. Our guide tells us it is 67% complete and they are planning to complete it in 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. There still seems a lot of work to be done. It is amazing from the outside and indescribable from the inside. Learning about the development and the story behind the design and the reasons why things are where they are and their meaning helps us understand the building. 

After our tour it is 3 pm so we decide to have lunch. We find a little cafe and have baguettes with coke, beer and sangria. When we pay we are a little surprised. We had one baguette and a coke which cost 12 euros, 6 euros for the baguette and 6 euros for the coke. Ross had a sangria for 12 euros, Luggy had a beer 8 euros! Ripped off by Indians in Sagrada Familia.

We get back to the bus and head off home, we get home at 6 pm. Beers o'clock is getting later !!!!

Park Guell

Today we headed to Park Guell, a park which includes some Gaudi architecture. The weather is cloudy and cool, max temp around 20 degrees. Not what we have been used to. The park is unbelievable. It covers a vast area and the side of a hill. It has some fantastic scenery. We spend about 75 mins there and then head off. We get back on the hop on/ off bus and head towards the port. We arrive there after there just before three. We do not go up top as it is too cool. We alight from the bus and walk the Las Ramblas. We are getting hungry. We eventually end up in the area where we stayed last time and went to one of the restaurants we went to last time. 

After lunch we head back to our apartment and pick up groceries. We end up back home after 6 pm. 

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