July 13 Barcelona, Spain

We bought groceries last night and cooked in our hotel - which was very nice and included a kitchenette. Sadly, no microwave (but I didn't know that when I bought our dinner ;-) Food is very expensive in Spain - so we thought we could save a little money by eating in. Curtis and I were not too good at that - we bought enough food for 4 days (instead of 2) - but we enjoyed it all the same. Today, we started as a group on the metro and went to Sagrada Familia - which was spectacular!!! Sadly, there was so much construction, much of the exterior is covered with scaffolding. It is an amazing ongoing work that started before WW2 and has continued with each generation adding to the vision. It will be monstrous when it is completed. Mind boggling to think that it is only 1/4 done! (Favorite line "Para mi - SI. Para tu - NO!" - memories of the restroom at the bocce ball grounds. Hee hee)

After this each couple went their own way to explore Barcelona. Curtis wanted to swim in the Mediterranean Sea - so we took the Metro downtown and enjoyed the beach for a little bit. Then we meandered around town and took in the sites. We found lots of interesting buildings, walkways and public parks. they love public art in this city, too.

At the end of the evening, we found ourselves in the town square in front of their spectacular cathedral (there were probably 20 cathedrals in this city!) where a Spring cultural festival was going on. There was an orchestra playing these strange oboe-like traditional instruments (but they sounded like kazoos) and the entire community was in a circle dancing this traditional dance. I couldn't figure it out. They were all in beat - but is was not the beat of the music being played. They also had human tower demonstrations (really cool!) and some traditional dancers (that dressed similarly to Native Americans with wrapped banded legs and bells).

We came home exhausted from walking around all day - but it was fun & the metro was easy to navigate.

outside the Sagrada Familia waiting in line to get in 

We took an audio tour. you can see the finished and unfinished windows behind me

pillars mimic trees and the ceiling mimics leaves

Birth of Christ relief

Beach boardwalk in Barcelona

After swmming

public art of a giant copper whale!

It is hard to see this - but it was a rain forest with rain coming down from all the supports

Loved the tree lined streets and the grass between the train tracks :-)

You can never go wrong with an icecream truck!

like the graffiti caption? There is so much graffiti in Europe on everything! It looks just like our graffiti - just letters - but they do not clean it up. It is on every sign, evey wall - even windows!

AMAZING fountain. There is a larger than life golden chariot being pulled by 4 horses on the top, all sorts of sculptures on it and then surrounded by 4 dragons at the bottom. So cool! This was at the Parc de Citedal. 

3 dragons castle

This public fountain reminded us of Aimee and Phil's kids ;-)

Statues of Mercury and Venus

Monument in the public mall walkway

Arc de Triumph - really - they seem to have them in every town ;-)

Inside the cathedral in the old town square. So much gold covered stuff it was mind blowing. Sadly it also covered up all the stain glass windows 

More Gothic ceilings - pretty cool!

Demonstration of human towers - warm up

Love the cool faces and statues hanging down from this bridge/walkway in the Gothic quarters of town. Here are a couple more views below.

Every town had public fountains for you to freshen up and refill your water bottle