Hola Amigos...

I'm back from my latest travels and the 30 Things... list has been updated accordingly.

As predicted it was one of the usual whirlwind visits with most of my time in Spain spent in either a meeting room, taxi or hotel room. What little I did see of Barcelona as it whizzed past the car window, I have to say looked well worthy of a return visit at a more leisurely pace sometime.

There was one more time honoured tradition to be upheld and that was to take the hour or so we did have spare on Monday night and find some good quality nosh. We were recommended to the Casa Fonda Europa and I have to say they didn't disappoint.

I took the usual opportunity of trying something different and started with a tapa of sardine and anchovy which set the taste buds up nicely to be followed by veal cheeks and pears for my main course, finishing with a medieval cheese and mint desert. I'll admit that the unusual combinations were the initial attraction, but I thoroughly enjoyed every last morsel of each course all the same.

Ever mindful of the six hour meeting scheduled the following morning, we all agreed that perhaps a small glass of beer was a more appropriate accompaniment than bottles of the local vino but the beer was the only non-Spanish element of the whole evening. I even got to try out a bit of the lingo with the waiters and taxi drivers with surprising success.

Sure enough, around 24 hours after arriving, we were boarding our Jet2 737 again and heading back to blighty. Incidentally, the jet we flew out on was called "Jo Whiley", but unfortunately I didn't notice whether we had the same one coming home. I only mention it as I was desperate to be able to come home, telling people we'd had a successful trip to Spain and that as an unexpected bonus, I had ridden Jo Whiley both ways...