As an early birthday treat for Reyce, we ordered tickets online for the Barcelona v Mallorca to be collected at the stadium, and flew out for a week. Unfortunately Sara couldn’t join us due to work committments (end of financial year). We arrived on the Wednesday night and jumped in a taxi to take us to the club where Sun Dog is moored, and on Thursday morning we headed up to Camp Nou to collect the tickets for the game. Somehow I thought we might meet with some issue but all we needed was three key documents; the confirmation note sent to us when the tickets were ordered, the card we used to pay for the tickets, and passports for identification. Upon presentation of these docs the tickets were duly printed off and we were both happy and relieved.

I had work to do on the boat during the week fitting Ultra Sonic Antifouling but will do a new entry to explain that process.

Reyce and I had a lot of laughs during the week we walked for miles, saw the city from the top of the tour buses, and also met with friends whom Reyce had meet last year. Match day duly came round and we arrived at the ground a couple of hours before kick off to soak up the atmosphere and watch the players warm up. The Metro around Barca is without doubt the best means of moving around the city, and there are a number of station on the L3 line close to the ground.

This photo was taken from our seats

As was expected Barca won convincingly but I have to say that the first half of the game was simply the best 45 mins football I have watched in a long long time, and not simply from a Barca perspective as Mallorca also had opportunities but they simply failed to take them. If one player shone out it was Iniesta and to see him in top form was a delight for both Reyce and myself. At the end of the game the score was 5-0. Half time it was 4-0 with Barca substituting some of their key players in preparation for the Paris St Germain game on Wednesday night.

In and around the city with a teenager who loves his football, we inevitably ended up in Football Mania a huge store selling a massive range of goods, with the price of some of the football boots rather eye watering.

I thought Reyce might like to visit Parc Guell but this was a step too far – however I did manage to capture a photo of him with his favourite zig zag tree in the background 😉

All in all a wonderful time spent with a wonderful grandson who is almost 15, and his behaviour and attitude is a credit to himself and his family. Thanks Reyce it was indeed fun……………