We arrived safely to Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon after a near 24 hour journey from Porto. Funny really because on our final day in Porto we crossed the Douro River and visited a host of the port wine lodges for tours and, more importantly, tastings. By 3pm we were sipping on a couple of 20yr old Grahams Tawny´s when we realised we were really leaving it a tad late to get on the bus for 4pm. A rushed taxi journey to the station, via the hotel for our bags, saw us make it on time. From there we went back south to Lisbon and then hopped on a painfully slow night-train to Madrid. The following morning we jumped on a connecting train to Barcelona. We´re certainly not a fan of the long distance travel but with our pre-purchased Eurail Pass that entire journey cost us a mere 6 euros each.
Porto was a very beautiful city and we enjoyed our three nights there. If we had stayed longer I think we´d have liked to head the 120km or so down the Douro to visit the heart of the port making industry. As it was we did a cheap touristy boat trip under the six bridges that cross the river. Well, the sign said six but we swear we only did five!
On Monday we went up the Torre dos Clerigos, a church tower, which is the tallest tower in Portugal. 225 steep steps later we were treated to a mint view of the city.
Our only lowlight of the three night stay was the accommodation. We ended up complaining when it came to paying the bill and basically refused to pay the full amount. After booking a double bedroom for three nights online we were forced to stay in a twin room (two single beds) for two of those three nights. That room also didn´t have the balcony and great view, or satellite tv, that they boast on their website. This is on top of the fact that their bar isn´t open for use and the games room is a table...that you can play cards on. Also, on our third night the tv didn´t work at all. Riiight.
So anyway we got 10% knocked off but not before having to argue with a manager who clearly hadn´t heard of a little phrase called ´Customer Service´. He made two great calls. Firstly he suggested if we had travelled all the way to Portugal perhaps we shouldn´t be spending our time watching tv. Secondly, he suggested I learn some Portuguese. The cheek! The moral of the story is don´t ever stay at the Grand Hotel de Paris.
But on a more positive note Barcelona is an excellent city. Our sight seeing has been restricted to seeing Parc Guell at this stage, a public park created but not completed by Antonio Gaudi. There are tourists heaving everywhere so it was too busy to see anything else. As one banner hanging from a room said "If it´s Tourist Season, why can´t we shoot them?".
We´ve booked for seven nights in Barcelona at this stage but may extend that if we need more time. There´s plenty to see and do both during the day and night. We also bought tickets today for Sunday´s La Liga match between Barcelona and Seville, should be good.
No facility for photos at the moment I´m afraid. We´ll whip some online if we get a chance.
Dale & Sheryl
2 comments:
Sometimes complaining is the only way to stop people getting away with crap service.
To be fair I think one should learn every language in the world (perhaps slightly ambitious?:), or at least those spoken in the countries one visits. That way the tv is worth watching...
To be fair we did try to learn the basics-but they spoke fluent English and they boasted it in their pamphlets and on their website-communication was not the problem. It was just a stupid comment the manager made when he realised he was in the wrong.
And the satelite tv included a fair few English channels {news, sports, movies- all we could ask for really} but anyways we had a good time and managed a small discount and we are planning a cruddy review on hostelworld.com as petty revenge.
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