Originally, I chose a different cruise, it was 11 nights on the Vision OTS from USA to South America, but my wife had got ill after the last cruise in October 2021 and was advised not to fly long-haul, so I swapped it for this one.

So, we travelled down by train from Nottingham to London and then tubed it into Heathrow T5 where I had arrange for a Antigen test for us both before getting on our flight to Barcelona. Once we got the negative result, we boarded the flight which got delayed by 2 hours due to a shortage of bag handlers. We got to El Prat airport T1 around 10pm and got the Aerobus into Barcelona (as the train only runs from T2 unless you get a shuttle bus to it). The Aerobus costs only Euro 5.90 each and an attendant was handing out tickets just outside the main entrance. The bus had loads of room for cases and the journey took approx half an hour and stopped just a few times and then dropped you off at Placa de Catalunya (at the top of La Rambla). A short walk was then need to our hotel as many streets are one-way and taxi's can take you a very long way round to make their money.

We stayed at a hotel called Best Auto Hogar and there was a very nice restaurant next to it called ANTIC cafe where we had quid and octopus washed down with a jug of sangria. Read more