Alps and Med Day 9: Provence to Barcelona

From Barcelona …

After breakfast at the hotel, we check out at 8 AM for the short walk from central Avignon to our bus parked just outside the city walls. Today is our longest transfer day. We leave France and head to Spain. It’s a 6-hour bus ride from Provence to Barcelona with a couple of road stops along the way. (Thanks to Brad and Michelle for the mid-morning potato chip snack!) Our route today takes us around the Gulf of Lion past Montpellier and Carcassonne. My soundtrack for this part of the journey … Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones, recorded in 1972 in the basement of Nellcôte in nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer.

At 11:30 AM we stop at Village Catalan for lunch. Rest stop wine and cheese in France for lunch is pretty good! Then we’re back on the road at 12:30 PM, quickly cross into Spain, and enter the Pyrenees Mountains.

Once we get to Barcelona we check into our hotel, take a walk around the hotel block, then hop on the subway to the harbor area at Las Ramblas a pedestrian promenade connecting Plaça de Catalunya to the Christopher Columbus monument and activated with cafes and street performers. We board a boat for a harbor tour of the waterfront and beachfront. Then it’s back on the subway and a 15-minute walk to Txapela a tapas dinner. That’s a busy day!!