Tuesday 14th November 2017
Disappointed that we had barely scratched the surface of the things we wanted to visit in Barcelona last week, we rose earlier than usual and boarded the handy bus just outside the gate to visit the city again. Kim had researched the Metro system and knew exactly which stations to use to visit our first attraction of the day, Tibidabo, a 512 metre ‘mountain’ which affords excellent views over the city and the Mediterranean Sea. There is a Blue Tram & a funicular railway that takes you up to the summit, where stands the magnificent Sagret Cor church, and a funfair.
The Torre de Collserola, a communication tower designed by Sir Norman Foster is also located on the mountain.
Unfortunately the Blue Tram was out of service on the day of our visit. We decided to walk the decidedly uphill 650 metres to the funicular station. This, in hindsight, is where our day took a turn for the worse.
As we approached the funicular station, walking on the shady side of the road, we both got sprayed with a foul smelling liquid down our backs. Bloody birds!!, we thought.
As we were inspecting the mess down each others backs, a man and a women, with a very large pack of baby wipes, approached and commenced to help us clean up the mess. Very handy & helpful we thought. Totally out of character, Kim put down her bag on the floor. The couple were pointing out to me where Kim had this stuff in her hair, and I continued to clean. We thanked them for their kindness and they walked away, back down the hill.
Twenty minutes later, after we had taken the funicular to the summit, Kim discovers that the €50 note that was in her purse had gone. Upshot is, these kind people sprayed us with god knows what, robbed us, and we thanked them for doing it! Scum.
Why didn’t we notice them lurking in the shadows? Why didn’t I pick up on the fact she had baby wipes in abundance, but no baby? Why did Kim put down her bag, she never puts down her bag? Why are we so bloody trusting? 🙁
We have been told we were lucky, most people lose their cards, driving license, passports etc., we were only deprived of cash.
After discovering the loss, we continued to look around for a while, but we were both acutely aware that we smelt not very pleasant and were extremely distraught about what had happened and with our own stupidity for allowing it.
We returned to the campground to shower and wash our clothing.
A little later we were approached by our on-site neighbour asking if we would like to join him and another nearby camper for a bottle of wine later that evening. Not being ones to turn down wine, we gratefully accepted 🙂
We had a wonderful evening with Lutz, from Germany, & Ed, from Holland. The chatting went on for some hours and raised our spirits again. We also managed to consume 4 bottles of red wine, & a bottle on Limoncello between us!! Thank you gentlemen, we hope to meet again on the road.
Lutz was flying back home the next morning. I hope his head was feeling better than mine.
