Day 3

Sunday 12th February: Cruise day! But first we had another day in Barcelona. It was time for my treat of the trip! I like the Olympics and although I did visit the site of the 1992 games last time it was part of a coach tour so I remember the Olympic part being quite rushed. We took the underground and funicular to the Olympic park, after a short walk we found a museum on the history of the games and some general sports. It was really well presented, there was quite a bit to see and some fun interactive parts for Charlie and Courtney.



At the end there were all the original relics from the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. They were fantastic to see, I remembered them from the games!


After the museum visit we went to the stadium.



We had a quick snack there before making our way to the cable cars. We misunderstood the cable cars a little, we'd researched them before we left home and bought a single trip as we knew they went down to the harbour as that's where we wanted to end up. Only this cable car went up not down! It ended up at the castle and it turned out there were in fact two cable cars in Barcelona! We stayed on it to the half way point back down, which is where our single terminated and were directed to the other cable car which we were told was a 10 minute walk downhill so not too bad and I would say the cable car ride we did was nice! We found the correct cable car no problem, only there was a problem, it wasn't working!!! There was one nice thing about this unfortunate occurrence, the viewpoint there enabled us to have our first view of our ship, the MSC Splendida.

At this moment I will admit I had a little panic as it was 2:00ish and we were supposed to be boarding the ship at 3:00! We walked a little and saw a sign for the funicular, a little relief as that was the way we'd arrived! It ended up quite a walk but we made it and arrived back at our hotel to collect the cases in plenty of time. We took a taxi to the port and again I'd checked us into the cruise online so after a quick security check we went on board our cruise liner. We were welcomed at the entrance, issued with children's life jackets for Charlie and Courtney (ours were in the cabin) and they were given a wristband with our cabin number on it, a very good idea, I thought. We were then guided to our cabin, 13188. What luxury! Our cabin is fabulous, we decided to treat ourselves to a balcony cabin and at the time of booking were upgraded to a category 11 cabin, the highest rated cabin other than the yacht club ones! I tell you, the cabin was pure luxury! Mark and I cruised the Caribbean for our honeymoon and had a twin bedded very narrow cabin with a porthole! Which was fine, of course but this cabin is more like a hotel room! There are so many special touches like robes for when we go swimming and liquid soap that's really lathers! We were surprised too to have a television, the channels are ok, nothing great but there's a channel that has cameras around the ship, there's one at the front of the ship so we have a captain's eye view and one that overlooks the pool so we can see if it's busy before setting off.



After unpacking we went to the safety briefing and attended the 'getting to know your ship' meeting in the theatre but to be honest it was more trying to sell excursions!

So after we did a recce of the ship, it's huge!!! I bet you burn a million calories just walking from the front to the aft, lol! Even now as I'm typing this, 2 days into our cruise we still get lost! Mind you, according to the info in our ticket pack there are 3274 passengers and 1332 crew! It doesn't feel like that many though.
We are on first sitting for dinner so went to our restaurant, Villa Verde at 6:00pm. We were taken to our table, 930 and took our seats. It's an 8 seater table and we were joined shortly after by an American family, Shaun, Kim and their 2 daughters. Shaun is based in the U.K at the moment in the Navy. There is so much choice on the menu and 5 courses every night! The food is delicious! During our meal they performed a dessert ceremony! Music was played and the waiters paraded around the restaurant with huge desserts! We swung our napkins above our heads, it was great fun!


After dinner we returned to our cabin to settle Charlie and Courtney, we went to sleep not long after them.
Here's how our beds looked made up.

Day 2

Saturday 11th February : Golly, I didn't like the other 5:00 in the day, I can't say I've seen it often but once a year is plenty enough! We got dressed and made our way to the meet and greet parking to leave the car. We were flying from terminal 2, I'd checked us in online a couple of days ago so it was just a case of dropping our suitcases off. We had a quick breakfast at the airport then got on the plane. We were sitting quite some time, we were due to leave at 6:40am but were still sitting on the plane at 07:10! Eventually it came over the tannoy that there was a fault with the plane and we had to transfer to a new one. Although a little inconvenient it did actually work out well as we ended up sitting together in a row whereas on the first plane we were dotted across 3 rows but kind of together, Charlie and I were on aisle seats opposite each other and Mark and Courtney were on the row behind me! (we flew with Ryanair which is free seating, almost like getting onto a bus! You can pre-book your seats but at an extra £80 we decided not to!)
We eventually set off around 1hour 40 minutes late but the captain made up the 40 minutes so we were only actually an hour late into Barcelona. We took a bus into the centre and then took a taxi to our hotel. We wondered where the taxi had taken us! We were aware the hotel was down a side street but there was nothing else there! Still it was just around the corner from the Ramblas and an underground station. The hotel itself was basic but clean and comfortable, perfect just for the overnight stay. After settling in we made our way out to the Ramblas, there was a good atmosphere along there, lots of market stalls, cafes and street entertainers.

Mark had researched the underground system before we left and we knew we could get T10 ticket, which meant we could have 10 journeys for 9.25 euros. This turned into a real bargain, we did everything we wanted to in Barcelona using them! After walking a good stretch of the Ramblas we got on the underground to the 'Sagrada Familia' church, one of Gaudi's creations.

The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is a work on a grand scale which was begun on 19 March 1882 from a project by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901). At the end of 1883 Gaudí was commissioned to carry on the works, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea.
It has always been an expiatory church, which means that since the outset, 130 years ago now, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century. (Info taken from www.sagradafamilia.cat)
I had visited Barcelona around 1994, I can't say I remember the church well but know I did visit it and couldn't comment on how much progress has been made in that 18 years but with it being such a long project I can't imagine it will have changed much, lol! One thing I really liked about the church is how much you can see the difference between the old and new stones, it was noticeable in quite a few places.

We got back on the underground and made our way to the 'Nou camp' football stadium, This was Mark and Charlie's treat of the trip! We weren't sure at first whether we'd do the tour but to be honest you couldn't see much without it. It actually was very good! We got to see the ground from the top and also grass level, changing rooms, press boxes, pre and post match interview area and the trophy cabinet(s)!!!




After a quick browse in the club shop we made our way back to the Ramblas for tea. We ate in the Hard Rock Cafe! It was a little later than we'd anticipated getting back to the hotel, by which time we were all extremely tired and just fell into bed!

Day 1

Friday 10th February: checked into East Didsbury Travelodge but after finding the only room available was on the 3rd floor and a broken lift, with 2 children, 2 suitcases, 2 travel bags and a pushchair it really wasn't ideal. They offered us a transfer to the Airport hotel which worked our much better. After helping Mark settle Charlie and Courtney in bed I went to visit my friend Sue for a cuppa as she lives near to the airport. We didn't want to be too late to bed as we were to be up at 5:00 so when I returned from Sue's I quickly booked the airport parking and went to sleep. (originally we were going to the hotel by train but decided just before we set off to take the car, hence the parking wasn't booked)

Our perfect holiday!

I had booked the last 2 weeks in February off work as holiday so I could be off for half term. Only half term was early this year and, you guessed it, my 2 weeks off were the 2 weeks after the school holiday! Unfortunately I couldn't swap my holiday as a full timer was off half term week (it's all to do with holiday percentages!) Thankfully I managed to get around it by covering a holiday at the beginning of February to take the time in lieu.
I'd looked at the cruise company (MSC Cruises) last year but we didn't go in the end. Mark had seen a deal on Travelzoo with them and that re-ignighted my interest. I looked into where they were sailing over half term and found this cruise.

We haven't travelled to mainland Spain together before and I've wanted to go to Gibraltar so it was ideal! We took in Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar (GB), France and Italy, it was fabulous! I kept a journal on my iPad of our trip to blog when we got home, so here it is!

A round up of the last few weeks!

I was going to do individual posts to catch up with my blog but after much thinking figured this would be the best way instead! So....

28-29th January - We went away to Yeovil for the weekend. Mark and Charlie went to watch PNE play football on the Saturday whilst Courtney and I shopped and then on Sunday we went to Stonehenge, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. We've been close to going a couple of times but finally made it that weekend.



6th February - Courtney got her very first stamp at nursery! She earned it for tidying up without being asked, what a good girl! We are very proud of her♥



7th February - Mark and I celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary♥

11th-19th February - We had a fabulous holiday! We went on a Mediterranean cruise, a full post to follow.

22nd February - Pancake Day! Yummy!



4th March - Courtney's birthday party! We held it at Pizza Hut in Lancaster, it was great fun! The children all got to create and eat their own pizza! Followed by the ice cream factory!


7th March - Courtney's 3rd Birthday! Happy Birthday beautiful girl♥




9th March - Charlie's class assembly, the theme was fairytales and rhymes. He did really well, he had one line to say and spoke it perfectly. 'We made these castle pictures'


11th March - Courtney started Sunday School. She had a good time and I think Charlie was delighted to have his little sister there.

18th March - Mother's Day. I love my children with all my heart, after spending so many Mother's Day's yearning to be a mummy this is the one day of the year I adore. (Photo taken in Knott End)


23rd March - Sports relief day. At school Charlie was allowed to wear something sporty! Naturally he chose his PNE shirt!

Spot the Difference!

This is the reason for the lack of blogging recently! This little transformation was meant to have taken 3 weeks, that was what we were quoted but yet here we are a the end of week 6 and it's almost there! I say almost, the actual structural work is complete and the builders have moved out but we are yet to decorate and there is a little cleaning to do!!! The 'box' that is now stuck to our house permanently was a bit of a shock first and is much bigger than we thought it would be. It's taking some getting used to but the space we have created makes it very worthwhile.
This was how the rooms looked upstairs, we had the loft converted 11 years ago and it's suited our needs brilliantly but now the children are having their bedrooms upstairs we felt the sloping ceilings would, in time, not be ideal.

The study, looking in from the door, we had 2 desks in there, Mark's is just to the right of the picture.

and looking back from the desk, this also shows the size of the old landing.

Across the landing was the guest room.

Looking back from the bed. (we always kind of felt this looked like a bit of a corridor, see what we mean about the slope!)

Finally we had an en-suite shower room to the guest room, although this was sneaked into the apex we actually quite liked it's quirkiness!


Once we'd decided to go ahead and build a dormer we asked a local builder to come and have a look, he really inspired us and we were really excited to see the architects plan! There were a couple of 'tweaks' to the original plan during the building process, the chimney breast is actually positioned incorrectly and is actually more central in the study and the door of bedroom 3 is opposite bedroom 4's door.

The rooms were so much bigger than we expected and it was a bonus to fit an extra room in! So that was it! Full steam ahead!
Week one was meant to be the dirtiest week and the start of work was planned to coincide with us being away on holiday. Only we got a text on our next to last day saying we couldn't go home! We arrived home from holiday later than expected (more about that in my holiday blog posts to follow) so dropped Charlie and Courtney off at my parents in law and came home to have a look. We were both very excited to see the progress made but were in despair to find our home covered in tarpaulin and upstairs basically being an empty shell with no boiler, so no heat or hot water and generally an absolute tip! We picked up a few bits we needed up and went back to spend the night at Sylvia and Hughie's with the children. Next morning we brought Charlie up to school and saw the builders. That was when we found out about the plans been drawn incorrectly and the steel beam needed to support the whole structure went right through the chimney breast! The builders lost 3 days work until the corrections could be made. In the end we spent 10 nights at Sylvia and Hughie's, it was very kind of them to put us up for that long! Suddenly to have 4 extra people in their house couldn't have been easy! We finally moved back home the day the boiler went back in and just put up with the building work going on around us. The builders were excellent though, very friendly and considerate, that helped! So here we are almost there! Here is a collage of progress shots!

I will post some after photos once the decoration is done but be warned, it is being done in stages so could take a while, LOL! Generally though we are truly delighted with our new space, Charlie and Courtney can't wait to move up! I'm not surprised, their bedrooms are bigger than ours! They'll have so much fun with lots of space to play in! Charlie's room is being decorated first, he's chosen a football theme with Preston North End bedding, I think Mark will end up camping out up there, LOL!

Just a quickie!

To say I've not fallen off the planet! We've been on holiday and we're having some major building work done at home so are currently living at my parents in laws. I have quite a few posts I want to do but can't until my pc is set up again for the photos (I'm typing this from my iPad) hopefully it won't be too long but looking at the state of my house at the moment it could be a few weeks!