5th January - Barcelona

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Hello again,

Today it drizzled quite a bit but didn't dampen our enthusiasm at all - add an umbrella and we're ready to go!!

Again on the local tourist bus and to some of the most famous sites in Barcelona and some indeed - world renowned. First we went to Sagrada Familia or as it's known here - Gaudi's church. This enduring symbol of the cityand its Modernista legacy is this church - Gaudi's other wordly piece de resistance. The 8 spires out of 12 planned, can be seen from most of Barcelona and the church started being built in 1880 and still has a long way to go. It's quite an amazing structure with Gaudi using nature - flowers, trees and honeycomb and many other natural things as the basis of the carvings, ceilings and other structures within the church, it's a massive undertaking and will take many years to come to complete it.

Gaudi - an architect - has some very distinct designs throughout Barcelona and thousands of people every day visit the places he has designed. Some look Bedrock - Flinstone stye but with a lot more panache of course!! Will add some photos so you can see what I mean.

We also went to Catedral Place and Parc Guell which Gaudi also designed and had a look around there too.

WE wanted to do a bit of shopping and I have been wanting to get a couple of pieces for my Pandora bracelet but when we went to the only shop in town that sold it - the people were about 3 deep all around the counter!! You had to take a number before you could get served so gave that a miss!! We thought at the time that perhaps there was a big sale on Pandora but later on found out that it was the end of the Christmas period and that a parade would be on later in the evening and that the giving of gifts was the next morning - similar to Christmas - no wonder there were so many people there!! Also the next day is a Public Holiday!!

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