Excellence Playa Mujeres July/Aug 2017 - We're here!!!

Day 1! - long long day!!! We were up at 3.30am ready to meet our friends Fiona & Marcus Keeble at 5.15 for the drive to Gatwick.  A fairly speedy check in and I headed straight for duty free (got not one, but two 22% discount vouchers and a £5 off voucher) happy days!!!!

We then headed to Jamie Olivers for breakfast - we get No 1 club lounge in with our premium tickets but I hate it!).  The boys had 'The Full Monty' breakfast, Fiona and myself had lighter bites washed down with prosecco - somehow drinking alcohola at 7 in the morning seems ok on holiday!!!!

Our flight took off 15 minutes late - and was exactly 9.5 hours!!! Can't beat the Dreamliner!  I'll do a full Dreamliner report on the blog later.

After seeing Jill & Dale Bradley behind us at Immigration, Kevin was busting a gut to get to EPM before them!!! We hit the Red light and after taking a cursory look at our 7 bags (yep 7!!!!) we were on our way!!!

Carolina greeted us with a huge hug at checkin, and Fiona & Marcus arrived 5 minutes after us.

Then the loooooooong wait for Dale & Jill lol!!!! We were on our 4th glass of fizz when they turned up!!  Seems like Blue Bay had forgotten to book their transfer again! Third time!!! No such problems with our fab booking and fantastic TA - Nic at Beaches 4 Less.

On arrival at our room, I was pleased to see that All of our room requests were granted, the room looked lovely with champers on ice and our welcome home gifts.

We had a Quick unpack, nap, then we headed to the martini bar then what was my least fav restaurant - Agarve - not any more! Fantastic meal of garlic mushrooms, and a stuffed chilly pepper dish - fabulous!!! 

The fantastic female mariachi singers were there to serenade us.

We drank at least 4 bottles of red between us - it was now 3am uk time, and I was really feeling it! So early night where I slept through to 6.30mx time! Looking forward to today!!!!!

Barcelona - October 2016

Barcelona!

Thursday

This October I was lucky enough to be taken by Kevin to Barcelona for four days to celebrate my birthday.  Kevin had made all the arrangements, all I had to do was turn up on the day with my clothes packed.

The flight to Barcelona was via EasyJet, my first experience with them.  Whilst it was a basic flight, because of the shortness of the journey, it was perfectly adequate.

We arrived in Barcelona and after a short taxi ride, we were greeted at Hotel Ohla with a glass of champagne, then shown straight to our ‘Designer Room’ in this centrally located Boutique hotel.

Ohla Hotel, Barcelona

Our open plan hotel room was modern, with feature shower, crisp quality linen, upscale mini bar etc.  There was no food included in our stay, but there a loads of restaurants near by to take advantage of.

After a short nap, we headed to the hotel restaurant La Plassohla for a meal. 

The menu is tapas style but this is not the street food tapas of Las Ramblas.  Beautifully presented, delicious flavorsome food.  Not cheap, but oh so good!!!!  Veal, squid, octopus, and some divine Iberian ham.  This was seriously good food! And some good red wine.  Perfect meal!

A couple of drinks in the hotel bar and we were ready for bed.

Friday

Friday was my birthday, so we headed out towards Las Ramblers for a little bit of retail therapy after a breakfast of churros and chocolate.

Las Ramblas is a street in he heart of Barcelona where all the tourists congregate.  There’s loads of high street type shops on either side of a wide pedestrian walkway with little souvenir and artists stalls.  


















Just off the main thoroughfare run a maze of side streets, offering more shops, restaurants and markets including the wonderful fresh food market. La Boqueria. 

Here you will find every sort of fresh food imaginable.  Wonderful Iberian hams alongside Octopus and Fish.  Cheeses and breads piled high, fresh fruits and flowers.   And everywhere you look, little pull up stools where patrons can stop and sample the wares.  The market ‘stalls’ are a permanent fixture, and you can easily spend a few hours wandering along the lanes taking in the colourful sites.

We stopped and had a few glasses of beer and some tapas lunch of ham and cheese before wandering back to Las Ramblers to continue our shopping.

That evening, after a couple of pre-dinner g&t’s and some rooftop photography, we went to a restaurant further downtown.  This was a mistake.  The restaurant looked promising but was really really bad, a huge disappointment after the luscious meal the night before.   We should really read TA reviews before embarking out!







Saturday

We decided to walk the second part of Las Ramblers today, down to the Harbour.  The architecture all around Barcelona is a real mixture of styles with some beautiful buildings on Las Ramblers reminding me of some of the buildings in New Orleans – they had a real bohemian feel to them with wrought iron railings and dark paintwork.

The harbor hosts a modern shopping center and a few restaurants, here Kevin indulged in mussels, razor clams and some shellfish – I had cheese and ham and paid 46 euro for the privilege!

After a late lunch we wandered back to the hotel for a nap, and decided to eat in the hotel for our last night.  After another wonderful meal, we headed to the cocktail bar for some seriously fabulous cocktails – the hotel has won awards for its cocktail bar and it really showed in the details the barman put into making them.  A wonderful chocolate and raspberry confection was right up my street.  The outside coated in cocoa powder then dusted in gold foil – scrummy!  Not cheap at over €100 for two drinks each! But a Perfect end to a perfect day!

Sunday

Sunday we packed up our cases, left them with the concierge and headed t o La Sagrada Familia – a short cab ride from the hotel.  The cathedral was packed with tourists and if I’m quite honest, very disappointing.  It has a wide range of styles, each side/section of the cathedral a testament to the design of its era.  I loved the small details however, the snails and animals carved out of stone and marble which climbed the cathedral were wonderful.

After this we cabbed it to the Parque Guell – we wasn’t able to get tickets into the Gaudi area, so wandered around a bit before heading back to Las Ramblers where Id seen a couple of paintings I wanted to buy for home.

After our quick shop, a bit of lunch, and two of the largest beers ever! time to head home – a cab ride back to the airport via a wrong terminal! Then home.

Love, love, loved Barcelona, cant recommend it enough!!!