Day 4 - Barcelona, Spain

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Activities

Sagrada Familia
Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar

Highlight(s)

• Lunch at Los Caracolos.
  
• The coffee man remembering our usual morning order.
  
• The Metro - Barcelona's user friendly train system.
  
• The laneways in and around the Gothic part of the city.
  
• Gelati count - 6.
  

Odd Spot

• Grid lock at Sagrada Familia - its amazing how one small sliver car can cause 8 buses to be held up for 5 minutes because the tourist driving was in the parking lane blocking through traffic. The horns were deafening.
  
• Bondi Rescue and Boston Legal in Spanish
  
• The hotel staff here are like a British Sitcom - although they are friendly and helpful, nothing seems to work or go their way. It's fun just checking out how they tie their neck tie each day. Today one of them had the back of the knot kinda at the front.
  

Weather

Warm, sunny day. High temperature 29 degrees.

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Photos

Bottleshop on Carrer de Hospital
Wine from the barrel - yes please.

Sant Antoni
Metro station - clean, easy to use and trains are on time!!

Sagrada Familia
Construction of cathedral has been ongoing since late 1880's.

Carrer de Montcada
Museu Picasso has to be around here somewhere...

Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar
Recognised as the most beautiful church int the city, Santa Maria del Mar has an amazing gothic facade and breathtaking internal architecture.

Carrer Volta Bufanalla
Opposite Basilica de Santa Maria, Barcelona's residential laneways are understated but full of character.

Los Caracoles
Tile laden dining rooms, easy to drink cava (bubbles) and cerveza (beer), sensational roast chicken, decadent desserts - a fabulous lunch from start to finish.

Passeig de Colom at dusk
Out for a stroll just on dusk - 9pm.

The Columbus Monument
Looking down towards the Columbus Monument from Passieg de Colom.

Comments

[Steve.Z.]

Great photos
A couple of things..... I'm pleased to see the gelati count is now out numbering the days away, I expect to see this trend to continue. Great photos guys.....getting a great feel for the city. Clean, on time trains....wow....see what you can learn from them and bring the knowledge back to Melbourne!!!

[Dave Gazz]

keep it coming...
Loving keeping track on the blog... make sure you save a few happy snaps for the slide night when you get back!.... Hey, I've got a crew getting together to watch the Valencia race live on Sunday - Channel 10 HD is coming to the party again this week. Be great to patch you guys in for an on the scene report....

[Em]

Disaster at Madrid Airport
Got a bit of a fright this morning when the first item on the news was the plane explosion at Madrid Airport. Oscar was told very sternly to SHHHHHH by both of us as we tried to work out what was going on and where. Confirmed that it's the same country as you, but different city, different location and different type of tourist involved. Stay out of trouble and keep going with the gelati!!

[mickandjoc]

Disaster at Madrid Airport
The first time we saw the footage was walking past a cafe that had a massive tv screen. We could see what had happened but it took us a while longer to work out the details and actual impact. If my spanish is correct, I believe three days of national mourning have just been announced.