We’re zipping through the French countryside at approximately 200mph on a high-speed double decker train to Spain. Vehicles on a nearby autoroute look as though they are barely moving by comparison.

My challenge is to get from Bournemouth to Barcelona by train in a day.

Thanks to the new and and improved superfast international rail network, it is now possible to leave home in the early hours of the morning and reach the Catalan capital by early evening.

I’ve persuaded my husband to join me for a weekend break and we arrive at Waterloo just before 7.30am. After a short tube ride on the London Underground to St Pancras, we have time for a full English breakfast before heading towards security which is surprisingly rigorous - on a par with an international airport.

Once on board the Eurostar though, we are able to relax and experience our first real burst of speed after heading through the Channel Tunnel to Paris.

Here we change stations via a short trip on the Paris Metro and make our way to the TGV Barcelona-bound duplex at Paris Lyon.

From the upper deck we watch the landscape scale up from gentle hills into mountains (on a clear day you can see the French Alps on one side and the Massif central on the other).

At around lunchtime we wander along to the onboard cafeteria (which is also a great viewing platform) which serves hot snacks and sandwiches.

As we head further south we get a first glimpse of the Mediterranean and the landscape becomes greener dotted with whitewashed houses and terracotta roofs.

We travel the length of France through historic cities of Montpellier and Girona arriving at Barcelona Sants in just six hours and 20 minutes.

Rather than hailing a taxi, we decide to stick to rail rather than four wheels, so we venture into the bowels of the station to the Metro Subway System which is very easy to navigate.

Within 15 minutes we find our hotel The Mirror Mirror right in the heart of the city - an uber chic boutique hotel (everything is white and mirrored) with an upscale restaurant and bar. (One of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World).

The staff are friendly and helpful, and we have a large balcony from our bedroom with a rooftop view across the city.

We spend the next two days ticking off some of the sights.

There is so much to recommend Barcelona - it has a mild climate (temperatures crept up to around 21C when we were there in late April), it is located on the coast, it is the capital of Modernism - there are many famous monuments designed by the famous Antoni Gaudi including the renowned Sagrada Familia.

There are also many arts and cultural exhibitions and museums to chose from, like the Picasso Museum and the National Museum of Catalan Art. We also loved strolling along La Ramblas where everyone goes to people watch in the evenings.

And last but not least is the food. There is a vast variety of restaurants, cafes and bars to suit all tastes and budgets.

We were recommended to visit Le Bouchon, a Gothic Quarter bistro in the five-star Hotel Mercer, which served the most incredibly stylish tapas in an atmospheric setting with dramatically high ceilings and wood beams.

This is the hotel’s more casual dining restaurant overseen by the hotel’s new Italian Chef who has a Michelin Star at his restaurant in the Campania region of Italy.

We had a taster of some of the new dishes on the menu, pasta and potatoes with smoked provola, parmesan eggplant, potatoes and York ham croquettes, rice Arancini and tuna balfego tartar followed by rum baba with amarena (the English version we were told).

Barcelona really does have it all and it is easy to see why it is one of the most visited cities in Europe.

And the fact you can get from Bournemouth to Barcelona in a day by train is a bonus.

Factfile

Nicky Findley travelled by train to Barcelona as a guest of Loco2 (https://loco2.com).

Bournemouth to Barcelona costs from £195.10 return in Standard Class. (From London, tickets cost from £132 return in Standard Class.)

See London to Barcelona by train for more information.

Loco2 is a search engine for train tickets.

Its simple, fast booking platform enables users to buy train tickets for the UK and across Europe, from Bournemouth to Barcelona and everywhere in between.