Greetings from Gran Hotel La Florida – high up on Mount Tibidabo!

It’s been a rather strangely wonderful day!

I – sadly – checked out of Hotel Arts. It has been my “home” for many years here in Barcelona … I have always been comfortable & comforted there.

The weather this morning was atrocious! It was raining so heavily that I was sure that the sea level was rising! We did have a full day of filming features planned and we hurriedly (& thankfully) rescheduled them for Sunday! Phew! One of the features WILL be awesome!

We drove round the city in the pouring rain! On a sad note, I did pop into my (ex-) favourite cigar shop in Barcelona. The “old man” who used to run it has retired and sadly, the new owner lacks his charm and hospitality. I will not be going back there. I am so lucky that the two gentlemen who run Davidoff in London are among the greatest people in my life and indeed the world.

SO – I am here – and I have a great view over the whole of Barcelona. I can even see my suite at Hotel Arts – although it is MANY, MANY kilometres away!

I have a stunning suite in La Florida – which I will give you more details of tomorrow.

The rain did stop after lunchtime and the boys filmed the hotel in much detail. We filmed a quick feature in the spa – namely Sparience. It’s a giant bubble which is filled with 99.5% oxygen … you sit in there for 23 minutes and are given reflexology! It was rather special and rather relaxing!

I then had a refreshing swim, followed by a wonderful massage. My masseuse used warm oil … and applied just the “right” pressure. Heaven!

OK – time for sleep …

It’s an early start in the morning and I understand the weather for this weekend is SUPERB!

Song of the Day: Would I Lie to You? – Charles & Eddie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-nSdyHhZeM

Weather: Yuk!


Gran Hotel La Florida

My O2 arena!

with Claudia ...

the lovely indoor pool!

I LOVE IT!

Entrance to hotel

Staircase ...

The bar with lovely bar staff ..

Water art

Gloria Anglora - Director of Sales & Marketing ... and our chaperone!

James playing with the Leica!

The King ...

It's been a rather long day and I REALLY just want to curl up and sleep.

I am checking out of Hotel Arts Barcelona in the morning. It's been very pleasant returning to one of my favourite hotels in Europe. The PR lady Rosemary Trigg is a legend and the service here is just perfect ... we have been eating in "Bites" every evening and Conny & her staff have been so great to us ... we shall miss them very, very much indeed ...

So, up early again and we met with our temporary member of the team - Lucia - from the Catalunya Tourist Board. She is with us until Sunday ... translating, driving and matroning us!

First stop - 15 kms north of the city and Alella - home of Marfil (which means ivory) - an urban vineyard. Here we met with one of the master vintners Xavier Garcia who showed round this 95 hectare site. They have been making wine here for over 2000 years ... and until 1956 it was pretty dicey stuff. The area achieved DO (quality) status in 1956 and since then, Catalonian wine has much, much improved. The Romans were HUGE fans of the wine as it was strong!

At Marfil, they make every wine possible BUT I loved the fortified white (like sherry) and red - which was strong, sweet and very tasty!

After a long lunch of jamon, tomato and bread, we headed back into town and to Jamonisimo to meet with its owner Pedro Martin. His shops sell THE most expensive jamon in the world ... along wth wines & whiskies that made me VERY thirsty indeed! We tasted many hams - an art also instigated by the Romans - washed down with fine Krug! It was a bizarre but lovely afternoon.

Home for a swim and yummy dinner!

Bed.

Song of the Day: Balcony Scene (Romeo & Juliet) - Craig Armstrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je3KyWWW8pA

Weather: Changeable!
wine

drink problem!

views of Alella

Hamtastic!

Krug anyone?

A cold evening swim :)

The new Leica V-Lux ... my camera of choice for this series! Delivered today and photographed by ...

my old Sony that retires today after 3 years of service ... sleep well my friend ...

After two days of glorious sunshine, the rain Gods decided that we needed to feel their wrath!

Up early again and we head off to Avda. Tibidabo to meet with Jordi Cruz who currently holds 2 Michelin stars with the ABaC hotel - a 15 bedroom boutique property in the centre of the city. He taught me to make a typical Catalan dish ... with a HUGE twist! Jordi was the youngest chef in Spain and 2nd youngest in the world to win a "star" by the way!

So he took sausages, tomato and bread ... VERY basic local ingredients and did this, that and the other to it ... turning it into 2 small spoonfuls of sausage and tomato gnocchi with a small cup of tomato water & olive oil ... all smoked with beech wood! OK - sounds easy but it took agar baths ... heating to 64 degrees and a HUGE amount of skill to make this dish! WATCH THE SHOW to see more! The dish was delicious by the way!

In the past two days I have cooked with 2 Michelin "stars" and both were thoroughly decent & lovely human beings ... some idiot "celebrity" chefs could learn so much from these two ...

Onwards and off to meet Norman Vilalta ... one of the greatest bespoke shoemakers in Europe. He takes over 200 hours to make each pair from the design to the final product. He makes around 100 pairs a year ... and the start price for a pair is around Euros 2500!! I totally fell in love with every shoe I saw ... all for men and all totally unique. I have my shoes made for me ... or buy from Tod's ... I like shoes ... I LOVE shoes ... did I order a pair? Well, that's between me, Norman ... and my bank manager! haha!

Gemima - the pooch - is a Cocker Spaniel and therefore has Spanish heritage! I met many pups today ... none as lovely as Moo but all very friendly and quite fun.

In the late afternoon, the rain started to fall. I had, by this time, met with Cristina Mila from the Barcelona Guide Bureau ... she knows EVERYTHING about modernism architecture in the city. We visited Gaudi's Casa Batllo .. the publishing house of Montaner i Simon and others. There are hundreds of properties in Barcelona that have this beautiful type of architecture that came about in the 1880's when old buildings were torn down and rich families wanted to build amazing, ostentatious homes ... to outdo their other rich neighbours.

You HAVE to see Barcelona on foot ... so you can appreciate these buildings!

We ended the tour at Colmado Quilez - the oldest grocers in town - opened in 1908 - the FIRST place in Barcelona to sell single-malt whisky! I celebrated this fact by buying a couple of bottles for my collection!

Tomorrow looks like rain! Grrrr....

Song of the Day: Kinky Afro - Happy Mondays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3XIlEUO-VE

Weather: Frustrating!

basic ingredients ... yum!

with Jordi Cruz

shoes! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Norman

nice!

Tools of the trade ...

Yuko the very sweet pup

MODERNISM! The three busts include one of Cervantes ... and one of Dante ... a dose of The Inferno anyone?

WHISKY!

Cristina and 6 shelves of water that cost on average Euros 10 a bottle!

Hotel Arts Barcelona was built in 1991 but opened as a fully-finished Ritz-Carlton in 1994. It was open in 1992 for the Olympics but only as a "B&B" ... as the city was desperate for rooms.

The hotel underwent a major refurbishment in 2006. It now has 483 rooms & suites - in this 44 floor building on the Marina. The building is 153 metres tall ... with views of the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Barcelona.

On the 42 & 43rd floors there is now a Six Senses spa. I have just had a 50-minute massage which was very lovely & refreshing! I am used (like most of the world) to 1-hour massages so feel rather robbed of my last 10 minutes ... I will sleep an extra 10 minutes in the morning to get my life back into kilter!

I am high up in the building in a 3-bedroom duplex suite ... with fully-fitted kitchen, dining room, living room .... and ALL the views of Barcelona you could wish for!

Up early and despite the BBC's promise of rain - the sun was shining brightly on the marina below me.

We first filmed up at the spa ...

Sensational views down the beach!

Barcelona has a plethora of Michelin stars and here at Arts - there is the 1-star Enoteca - whose head chef is Paco Perez. He taught me how to prepare a lobster dish, with white asparagus and Grey Mullet roe. My Spanish is worse than his English so we had a "fun" time filming the piece. The end product looks great and the dish tasted ... SUPERB! Also Paco is a lovely chap ...

The GM of Arts is Victor Clavell. As it was such a lovely day, we interviewed outside in the sunshine. The hotel has 5 food & beverage outlets, a lovely outdoor pool (that is FREEZING!), gardens, shops and wonderful local art and of course, that Frank Gehry "fish" that I featured yesterday.

My hotel arrival ...

Rosemary Trigg has been the PR for this property for over a decade! That means I have known her for over a decade. She has not aged a day ... unlike me! She's one of the best ...

As the afternoon wore on, we start filming in my 250 square metre Suite ... beginning with the views!

My suite has a lovely staircase ... on the ground floor is bedroom 1 ...and the stairs lead to bedroom 2 ... and

3 - which is mine!

Wall to wall Acqua di Parma! yum!

I have a 24-hour butler service that unpacked my bags and even runs my bath!

And provides me with ketchup and soya sauce! HEAVEN!

It's been a long day - but I did manage to get in a swim! My favourite photo of the day is this one which features Tim in the background. He may look like a scary monster ... but in reality, he's just a monster!

Song of the Day: It's Only Love - Tina Turner & Bryan Adams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6igcfvq2BQ

Weather: Cool ... sunny ... nice!

Greetings from Hotel Arts in Barcelona.

I am sipping on a white coffee. Not unusual you may say but I am lactose intolerant and here the thoughtful hotel has put a carton of goat's milk in the refridgerator! This is a first for me and a VERY pleasant one.

Ryanair is THE worst airline in the world ... but EasyJet is not that far behind. The last time I flew EasyJet was just after 9/11. I was flying from Gatwick to Nice for the television festival in Cannes. The staff (& other passengers) on the flight decided that as I looked foreign that I was a bomber. I was made to feel rather uncomfortable ... it was awful. Anyway, today's flight (which was actually the most convenient flight for me) was a masterclass in incompetence and appalling customer service. Thankfully it's only a 2 hour flight to Barcelona!

The sun has been shining all afternoon and anyone who has every stayed at Hotel Arts will know that that is when the property comes alive. The glass & metal building gleams and glistens ... it's a wonderful sight.

I am staying in an apartment 30 plus floors above sea-level. My views are stunning ... more on that tomorrow.

Have been for a swim and dinner with the boys. An early night as I am up early filming tomorrow.

Song of the Day: Don't Stop the Dance - Bryan Ferry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33_Ve18q1r4

Weather: More yellow than orange - thankfully!
Hotel Arts - Barcelona
The art in the garden!

The view over to The Med

The lion flutters in the wind...

The boys!

It's been another terrific day. For some reason, in the last week, a lot of stress has been lifted from my shoulders. I am not sure what, where, why, who ... but I feel fabulous! Maybe it's the swimming, maybe it's the pup, maybe it's the weather ... maybe my morning cigar and my evening whisky ... who knows, who cares ... !

OK - so all packed and ready to go first thing in the morning.

It's a strange one as the boys are flying from a different airport to me. We'll meet at Barcelona airport in the morning. I did see a glimpse of the F1 today - the track looks superb. With a bit of luck I will be driving it myself this week - I kid you not!

Song of the Day: Evil Woman - ELO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9qeJskx6r0

Weather: Pleasant

my blossom tree!

I have a little routine going ... morning swim, morning cigar, morning chai tea latte (non-Starbucks), on-line newspapers ... morning play with pup and I find that this makes the day go so happily & smoothly.

Random acts of kindness puts my faith back in humanity. Today I read about someone who selflessly drove a complete stranger home although it was 100 miles away. The passanger had her hangbag stolen at a concert ... and her knight in shining armour was sitting next to her and offered the lift. They are now married.

I am so excited about Barcelona on Monday. First stop - The Arts - one of my favourite hotels in Europe.

Song of the Day: We play the Music - Skool of Thought
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXC6euIHpQo

Weather: Mixed

pretty