Blogs from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 11

Zoe Today is the last day in Barcelona We are really starting to get into Spanish time. At 11 o'clock we had breakfast. At a really nice bakery across the road. I had a croissant with chocolate filling, not really a healthy breakfast, but we're on holidays. After breakfast we went to Camp Nou and if you don't know what the is it is the soccer stadium for FCB (Football Club Barcelona). We went there for a early birthday present for my dad's 50th. Yes! He is almost 5o. On the 19th of September 1967, Dean Yates was born. Anyway, there were no soccer matches on and when there are no matches on they open up the stadium for the public, there is also a museum. At the museum there were all the trophies the Barcelona ... read more

Day 7 Bella We started the day with dad going to the bakery on our street and bring home croissants with chocolate sprinkles on top. We Walked to the Olympic park and I was in charge of the map and fortunately I got us the right way. There were names of Olympic people, shoutout to Sasha because Roger Federer was there! We Came back to the apartment said bye to Franziska, we were all really sad and we waved good bye to her from our balcony. Because we don't have a car, we use the train to get everywhere so we got it to lunch. We Caught the funicular train to the cable car place and went on a hill where there was a massive castle and fort with an art exhibition in it on white ... read more

Day 5 By Bella I woke up early in our apartment in Barcelona. Everyone else was asleep so I snuck in some technology time on my ipad till everyone woke up. We didn't really have breakfast we just had some bread then we put on our bathers and caught a bus to the beach. There was a little food place there so we had brunch. We were at the beach for about 3 or 4 hours. I had heaps of fun in the water with dad and Zoe. There were sharp rocks under our feet in the water. I had fun going over the waves. The beach in Spain is different because there are people with no tops on. Then we went to another little place for ice cream. It was so delicious, it had so ... read more

While travelling out to Montserrat this morning I was thinking that I will probably have to start another blog with an apology if it was half as picturesque and interesting as we had been led to believe. I then thought "is it ok to apologise and not change?" All this to say ... no apology!!! We travelled by bus to the "rack railway" - see photos for why it is called that - up to Montserrat and all it has to offer. As you are probably aware, it is known for a number of things including the spectacular mountain range (Montserrat means jagged mountain), the Basilica (first referenced in 888) the "Black Madonna" and the natural park which is a drawcard for rock climbers for obvious reasons. There are also 59 Benedictine monks who live in ... read more

Oh my goodness there is SO much to see and so much history but don't worry we aren't even going to try to cover all that we saw yesterday. The fact that we have fabulous wi fi and a blog didn't appear says it all - it was a big day. Also I have never depleted my phone (camera) battery totally in one day!! The Hop on Hop off bus was excellent but we decided to do both runs back to back which covered everything from the old town to the beach to the new town and ALL in between. Upon reflection we should have had a break because we were in overload after 4.5 hours!! For me the most striking thing was the modern architecture slap bang alongside something old and significant which is not ... read more