Our experience accessing the ferry at Civitivecchia was similar to Naples and Palermo. There was no public  transport connection between the railway station and the ferry terminal, we shared a taxi with another passenger who persuaded the reluctant driver to take us the three or four kilometres to the terminal. We checked in,  collected our boarding passes and discovered that it was another three kilometres to the ferry, but hurrah there was a shuttle. Sure enough five minutes later a bus picked us up and took us half way to the boat. The driver pointed to another bus in the distance and told us to walk to that. There was a maze of coned lanes to follow so we picked the one that looked too narrow for cars or lorries and set off. The second bus took us along the pier beyond the ferry and dropped us by a tent which contained the luggage scanner. Once through the scanner we had to walk the length of the ferry, cross the vehicles approaching the ramp and walk onboard.

Once onboard the ferry was similar to the one we took from Naples to Palermo. We found our cabin explored the ship a bit then headed for our bunks. The crossing was smooth and we slept well. At some point during the night we passed between Corsica and Sardinia, I’m sure that would have been interesting in daylight.

Our ticket included a free breakfast, when we went to the restaurant it was nearly empty, at a guess the ferry had about 50 people on board, definitely the off season. The second half of the crossing was very slow, they were obviously timing the journey so we would arrive exactly on schedule at 20.30. That was frustrating we had quite a tight connection with the train in Barcelona and some extra time would have been welcome.

Finally we docked (right on time) disembarked quickly and found the taxi rank, marvelous. Unfortunately the taxi driver refused to take us to the station because it was too close (3km) and the traffic was too slow. A Spanish family got the same reaction and gave up. He did say he’d take us for €50, but suggested we walk.

Undaunted we put ‘metro’ into Google Maps and set off at a very brisk pace, we had no idea where we were heading or how long it would take.

My brother Mark had booked our tickets  to Girona on his account and was on standby to change the booking if we missed the train, however he was in a departure lounge in Washington DC waiting to board a flight back to Spain. Once again WhatsApp came into its own we could let him know if we were on track and he was able to tell us which metro line we needed and where to find the platform for the high speed train north.

After a fairly stressful journey we got to Barcelona Sants station, cleared airport style security and boarded the 21.44 train with minutes to spare. We confirmed our ETA with my sister-in-law Maria who had graciously offered to meet us at 22.25, and gave Mark permission to board his flight. We were very happy to see Maria at Girona station and even happier to get back to their house and put the kettle on.