So, departing Paris, we opted for a day train rather than getting straight back into the night trains (more on that soon though..). We left around 1.30pm.... and a mere 9 hours later we arrived in Barcelona, including a friendly boarder crossing where once more no one showed the slightest interest in looking at our passports. Turisticas? No hay problema! The Spanish leg of the train they also showed no interest in our tickets. Which seemed to upset the few passengers who had seats reserved and seemed to want to show their tickets to everyone.

So we arrived in Barcelona at around 10.30pm and quickly learned the first lesson of the Barcelona metro - rules are just a suggestion (like pants) and strictly for Gringos, particularly the one about not smoking on the metro. And no Spaniard actually pays for the metro, unless you absolutely have to, and then one ticket for ten of you will do. The older ones are even more inventive with their fare evading ways... I guess they´ve had longer to learn.

Now, as any current or ex-Londoner will know, 10.30pm is around the time the Tube is starting wind down and the pubs are getting ready to ring the last drinks bell. Fortunately for us, we had left behind barbaric England for civilised Continental Europe, where no self respecting person even thinks about dinner before 10pm. So after arriving in town we not only found a place to stay, but we also managed some respectable tapas and a couple of beers before retiring .... at about midnight, scandalously early by Barcelonan standards. The irony of the situation is that we managed to find a part of the city that could quite easily be the high street of any english town. Pubs (not bars) every 200 meters showing English football games, a large array of English tabloid newspapers at every news stand and moreover a lot of fat, bald northern blokes walking around in their football shirts and 'avin it! If you couldn't pick them before, you can always pick them at about 11pm - they´re the ones stumbling around pissed, eating kebabs and trying to get in a taxi - bring on 24 hour English drinking!!

None the less, we have so far found Barcelona to be one of the coolest cities we have been to yet (and highly recommended for anyone thinking of doing a European weekend away). And I don´t mean sub-zero temperatures. In fact, we woke up on Saturday morning to find not only sun but at least fifteen degrees of Celsius out there waiting for us.... As Gary and The Kev would say `Toaps Oaffff!`. We spent the morning wandering around the harbour, checking out the gringo buses, the antique markets, the parks and the harbour itself. But all this touristy stuff proved a little too much for Kato & Nato, who despite all efforts couldn´t resist the pull of live FA Cup football in the afternoon (as if six months of it wasn´t enough...). And not satisfied with two games of English football (Arsenal/Sheff and Everton/Utd - the less said the better) they went on to watch the Spanish double header afterwards - Barca beating Mallorca (which pleased the Barcelonans) and Real Madrid losing to Bilbao (which pleased them even more).

And doing our best impersonation of northerners on holiday, we stumbled out of the pub at about 10pm in search of kebabs.....

Only kidding, we went out to dinner in one of the many exceptional restaurants around town and had three courses of excellent quality food for the equivalent of about 20 quid.... have we mentioned we like this city??