Day 6 - Tie a yellow ribbon

This morning we had a walking tour booked for 10am and but were a little concerned when we discovered our tour guide was Irish. However he ended up being quite an excellent guide, providing lots of interesting historical background as well as up to date information on all the symbolic yellow ribbons painted everywhere. We were aware that Catalan has been working towards their desire to achieve independence and it was good to listen to a non-native person's explanation of the circumstances. We also learnt that Barcelona's beaches were man made with sand brought in from Egypt and paid for by Olympic money under the guise of being necessary for beach volleyball.

After the walking tour we caught the train back to Jessica and Ricardo's and they took us for a drive up to Tibidabo mountain. Up the top was a good view over Barcelona where we could see La Sagrada Familia, the Olympic torch and other landmarks. The area was very busy, there was an interesting cathedral up there, as well as an amusement park, which included an aeroplane hanging from a pole to give a pretend plane ride.

After that it was back to Jessica and Ricardo's, where we enjoyed tapas and drinks at a bar just around the corner from their apartment.

Day 5 - A meating with friends

This morning we found a nice place for a coffee around the corner from our hotel. We waited there for K's Colombian friend Jessica to arrive, then headed down to the beach. Jessica took us to Barceloneta beach which was lovely but incredibly hot in the middle of the day.

After enjoying a lunch by the beach we walked up to La Sagrada Familia for our booked tour. Last time we were in Barcelona we had only looked at it from the outside. We had booked for 5pm believing it would be a little quieter by then but the crowds were still massive. The tour was very interesting and the inside was worth the visit.

From there we caught the train to Jessica and Ricardo's flat and headed out with them for an Argentinean meal which consisted of meat, meat and more meat (plus a little bit of bread and potato).

Day 4 - Unlocked and unleashed

Our flight to Barcelona wasn't until the afternoon so we decided to head back to the Galleria and its lovely roof top for a coffee before we left. We were a little worried that if we locked our room we wouldn't be able to get back in, however we had nothing to worry about because when we tested it we found that it didn't lock at all, we had spent the night with the door unlocked.

It was an uneventful flight to Barcelona and a pretty easy train ride to our hotel just off La Rambla. As we had expected La Rambla was teeming with tourists, it was so much busier than when we had last visited back in 2011.

Day 3 - Karen mode engaged

Our body clocks were still a bit out of whack so we gave up trying to sleep around 4:30am. Around 8am we headed out to discover that the temperature outside was much more pleasant than inside our hotel room. We couldn't resist the amazing pastries and cakes that the Germans do so well so we indulged in some coffee and streuselkuchen (sour cherry crumble) for breakfast.

We had booked a 10am free walking tour which as a local said to us was in the "colourful" part of town - which made us feel right at home. Our group consisted of half Aussies, we are always easy to pick out as we are the ones wearing hats. Our guide talked for an hour about the red light district, drug addicts and prostitution and how they were managed by the government. We then walked over to the old town, which really is the new town as it was demolished in WW2 so has been largely rebuilt.

After lunch we took our guide's advice and went to the cafe on the top floor of the Galleria shopping centre where we had a wonderful view of the city, and there was no expectation that we should buy something. It was too hot to sit outside but tourists were still lining up and standing next to the sign that said "selfie point".

We went to back to our hotel around 5pm even though we knew our room would be stifling. Once again our card wouldn't work to open our door. After the man on reception had a couple of attempts to reprogram our card he came up and tried himself with no success. He set the door lock up with some battery charging equipment and gave us the only free room in the hotel, which was a single room, to relax in while we waited. By 6.30 we hadn't heard anything so we went down to reception to see what was going on ... which was nothing! He's no closer to getting us into our room, by now K is losing her patience, she is about to enter "Karen" mode, which as you know can be pretty scary, it's like what happens to the Incredible Hulk when he gets angry, just without the turning green part. The situation is made worse by the excuses ... first the boss is playing squash so wasn't answering her phone, a bit later he says he's contacted his boss again but as she doesn't care why should he?

His only suggestion is that K speaks to the boss on phone, which didn't do much because she couldn't speak English. Two and half hours later the door is finally opened, it turns out the admin card works but regular cards don't - so we need someone to let us into our room each time.

This crisis averted we were finally able to head out for a nice traditional meal of schnitzel at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel.

Day 2 - Ich bin very hot in here

We were staying in the Arab section of town, pretty busy at night but very quiet in the morning. We headed out looking for decent coffee (yeah, Melbourne stereotype) and quickly came across a very modern all white coffee shop that was very popular. When we saw the prices K decided that they were ridiculous and insisted on leaving and looking elsewhere. 20 minutes later after only finding local places where everyone was having curry for breakfast, we gave in and paid $16 for two coffees - at least they were decent.

We caught the MRT (very efficient and clean) back to the airport, not needing to buy tickets - just needing to tap our credit card at the turnstiles. We braced ourselves for the 14 hours flight to Frankfurt behind the bulkhead in the basinette section ... then breathed a sigh of relief as there were no babies, just a German lady who was just as relieved as we were. In the end they were great seats, the extra leg room and freedom of being able to move around at will made up for the tiny screen being so far away.

On arrival we caught the train into Frankfurt and found our hotel that was stifling with no air con. We couldn't get our key card to open the door to our room, after a couple of attempts the receptionist finally got it to work. Frankfurt was in the middle of a heat wave so the room was very warm, luckily there was a fan which helped somewhat.

Day 1 - Off!

A fairly civilised flight time this morning, leaving at 9.30am for Singapore. A pretty cruisy flight, not much of interest to report, though the man sitting next to K was a little strange, doing little more than just staring straight ahead for the eight hour flight, he did not watch any entertainment, use his phone, read a book or go to sleep ... he just stared straight ahead. He came to life for two things though, the first was food, the other was each time M opened the window shutter he craned as far as he could to see out the window .... a bit of stretch considering he was seated next to the isle.

On arrival into Singapore M was taken aside at Immigration and subjected to to some serious interrogation ... slight exaggeration he was taken off to another desk because the system was taking too long. Little did we know that this was the start of a number of hiccups on the trip.

We waited at the carousel for our luggage, then waited some more. We did have slight concerns as at the self check-in section at Melbourne our luggage tags said Frankfurt, which we mentioned to the staff member who didn't seem to take much notice. We gathered that by now our cases were on their way to Germany. We checked with lost luggage, who told us that they would find them and send them to our hotel, so from the airport we caught the MRT into the city, travelling very lightly indeed.

After checking into our hotel in the Arab part of town followed by some clothes shopping for M we stopped for a bite to eat before heading to bed. Around 11pm we were woken by our luggage arriving - phew!