Barcelona

---

Spain was at the top of Matt's list so we decided to head to one of the major cities for our first real look at the country (our night in Jerez didn't count as a real visit since all we did was eat dinner and sleep there...we didn't actually see much). It was sort of a last-minute trip and we had problems finding someplace to stay that was reasonably priced...I found out later it was because there was a huge music festival that weekend and it was supposed to be one of the biggest tourist weekends of the season for Barcelona. Of course it was!! But, we found a hotel on Hotels.com that, while it wasn't inexpensive, it was affordable...and they had air conditioning so that made it all worth it (Note: Air conditioning is a luxury in Europe...not the norm in a lot of places I've discovered).

We flew into Girona in the late afternoon and took a bus into Barcelona. We stayed at the Gran Hotel Torre Catalunya and were very impressed with the staff there. For those of you who haven't heard, we've sold our house! (I'm getting to what this has to do with Spain in a second). Our real estate agent has power of attorney and was able to attend the closing in our place but there was still stuff they needed our signatures on before the closing could be finalized. So, they overnighted a packet of papers to us in Germany, we went on post and got them notarized and then had to send them back. The problem is that we didn't have enough time to send them back before we left Germany so we took them to Spain with us. The front desk staff arranged for us to send them to the States without any problems!

So, with that taken care of, we were free to explore Barcelona. We asked the staff for a recommendation for dinner, not so much so we could find that 4 star restaurant that they recommended but just to give us a destination for the evening. We ended up down by the docks, which was beautiful. I got to dip my toes in the chilly Mediterranean for the first time 😊 We had some tapas, sampled some sangria, and got ice cream. There's also a fountain/lights/music show that started at 9:30pm so we headed over that way to check it out.

Our second day we headed to Las Ramblas to explore. Las Ramblas is a street full of restaurants, tapas bars, shops, and street performers. There's traffic up and down the street but the huge pedestrian strip down the middle is where you see the most people. We were amazed by the street performers! Some of them had really incredible acts...there was everything from break dancers to magicians to individuals dressed in very involved costumes and makeup with some sort of an act. Our two favorites was the bronze cowboy who stood as still as a statue...until you dropped money into the can in front of him and then he came alive shooting his pistol and scaring you to death; our other favorite was the devil in the trunk. This man folded his legs up and sat in this old trunk and would do different hilarious things for the crowd. I gave him money and he took my hand to kiss it and licked it instead. Gross, yes, but very in keeping with his character!

We also visited the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat where we were able to go beneath the museum to the most extensive underground Roman ruins in the world. We got to see columns, walls, streets, and their sewer systems. When they built their walls they didn't waste any rock, so some of what you saw was from old columns and tablets. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to have cameras down there so we don't have any pictures but if you ever get to Barcelona you definitely have to go see it for yourself.

That night, after eating, we decided to head over to Molly's Fair City, an Irish pub just off Las Ramblas that we had seen earlier. The pub was full of Irish, English, and Americans...I really don't think that there was one person in there whose first language wasn't English. Matt managed to offend the Irish bartender when he asked if she was from England...she threw ice at him and scolded him pretty badly for the next several minutes 😊 It was nice to sit and chat with everyone...we met some guys in from Manchester, England in for a wedding and a group of girls from Ireland celebrating a birthday. Matt managed to squeeze into a few of their pictures so I'm sure they're wondering "who is that?" right about now!

Sunday was a big walking day for us. We set out to see some of Gaudi's architecture and visited the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia. It was begun in 1883 and is still not completed. Gaudi himself died in 1926 so they're hoping to have it done by 2026 in time for the anniversary of his death. The Sagrada Familia was incredible...and I don't know a thing about architecture. The detail on the outside and the inside of the church was amazing and it was something that you could literally look at for hours just to take in everything. There are two completed facades right now...the Nativity Facade and the Passion Facade. The Nativity Facade takes up one whole side of the outside of the church and depicts Christ's birth as well as the events leading up to it. The Passion Facade depicts the Passion of Christ...the last supper, his arrest, and his crucifixion. There is to be a Glory Facade as well but it hasn't begun construction yet. I bought a book from the gift shop with closeups of the sculptures on the building and descriptions of what they represent, since some of it is difficult to figure out.

After we finished walking around the Sagrada Familia we decided to see some of Gaudi's other work and headed over to Casa Mila, also called La Pedrera (meaning "the stone quarry") to take a look. Casa Mila is an apartment building that Gaudi designed in the early 1900s. There's not a straight wall anywhere in the building and reminds me quite a bit of something out of the movie Beetlejuice 😊

After finishing with Casa Mila we headed back to Las Ramblas. There was a painting that we had been looking at for the past couple of days that we ended up getting, as well as another impulse painting. Then we just walked around the shops and people-watched. This was our last evening and in the morning we had to check out and catch the train to Reus to the airport there so we called it an early night.

Spain is really incredible. The people are really friendly and, with the exception of the guy who tried to pick my purse on the Metro (subway), we didn't have any problems at all while we were there. Not as many people speak English in Spain as they do here in Germany but you can get by with basic Spanish, a lot of smiles, and even sometimes some pantomiming 😊 We're planning on visiting Spain several more times for the running of the bulls, La Tomatina in August, and Madrid at some point as well for a bull fight.

---

Photos

Chilly Med
Dipping my toes in the Mediterranean...I didn't think it would be this cold!

One Unhappy Devil
Here's our favorite street performer. This was his standard expression...it's part of why he was so funny!

Even Funnier...
Even funnier was him grinning because you knew he was up to something!

Ummm...there's a gun to my head
This guy looked like a statue and didn't move until someone dropped money in his can. Then...bang! bang! bang! he shoots you! I thought he was just going to hold still after he "shot" me and let me get my picture taken...and then I felt the gun pointed in the top of my head!

The view from our window
This was the view from our hotel room window at sunset.

Busy Barcelona Street
This street was a few blocks off from Las Ramblas

The Passion Facade
Here's a shot of the Passion Facade. It's difficult to get everything in just because of the sheer size of the building.

The Interior
Here's a ceiling shot of the interior of the Sagrada Familia, of the Nave. As you can see, it's still under construction.

The Nativity Facade
Here's a partial shot of the Nativity Facade

Closeup
I won't post every picture we took of the Sagrada Familia on here but here's a closeup of one tiny section of the Nativity Facade.

The Crypograph
This was really interesting. There are, I believe, 310 different ways that the numbers on here add up to 33, the age of Christ when he died. Diagonal, up down, zig-zag down the middle...try it...it's really cool.

Casa Mila
This apartment building was also created by Gaudi.