Barcelona Day 2

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10/6/18 - Our 2nd day in Barcelona, we met up with our guided tour excursion. Our first stop is up the mountain of Montserrat were we visited the site of Our Lady of Montserrat, better known to the locals as the Black Madonna. This place is so beautiful and peaceful with it's natural scenery, you can feel the sacred ambiance of the surrounding. Mass was being celebrated at the Cathedral during our visit and we were lucky enough to have been part of the gathering from start to finish. We spent a good amount of time outside the basilica enjoying the beautiful landscape surrounding the mountain. After a while we head back down the mountain to our next stop the La Sagrada Familia.

The Sagrada Familia is an expiatory temple, that is to say, a place made to commemorate the reparation of sins made against God or the laws of the Church. The work is directly financed by donations made by visitors and the public, which explains its slow construction progress. Gaudí even once said "the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia is made by the people and this is reflected in it. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people". Construction still continues today and its completion is scheduled for 2026, a date symbolic of the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death. Nice place to to see, have to wait see it completed and yet, will it ever be completed?

Our final stop in this tour is Guell Park. Constructed in the 1900. Was another Gaudi project financed by a well off family, Eusebi Guell. The lack of proper transport made the project unviable. Guell chose to halt the project in 1914 and upon Eusebi Guell's death, the family offered park to the City of Barcelona which decided to open it as a public park.

At the end of the tour, we were dropped Boqueria, were we once again enjoyed again a good meal of paella, tasted their local beer and of course bought some ham.

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