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Saturday, May 26th Picked up at the Apartment in Port Soller by Pierre who is retired from the French Airforce and is a real character!
Short flight to Barcelona, arrived at the Hotel Denit at around 2:00 pm and spent the balance the day orientating ourselves to the city. The Hotel is contemporary and central to all the attractions. The room is small but well appointed and the bed comfortable. The guest book shows a number of Canadians including 3 couples from Newfoundland!
La Rambla promenade is a sight to be hold! Nothing like it we've seen! After wandering aimlessly looking for a place to have dinner, we discovered, La Calates, which is the oldest restaurant in Barcelona. It is a traditonal Catalania restaurant! The appetizers were encouraging but the main course disappointing.
Sunday, May 26th. Took the city tour bus for most of the day. The Hotel Denit provided free passes which was good value. This was a great way to get an overview of the city.
Later in the day went back the La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) as the line ups were short that time of day. This is a must
see in Barcelona as it is like no other Cathedral that we've ever seen. Very Modernista and a significant departure from most of the Gothic style buildings that are common throughout Europe, particuarly on the inside.
Walked back to Alphonsinho Argentine steak house. This was good food and reasonably priced.
Monday, May 28th Alot of the Museums and stores are closed on Monday, so we walked around the old town and meandered along the waterfront which has an impressive, long beach.
Went to the Palau de la Musica Catalana for a Spanish guitar concert given by Manuel Gonzalez, one of Spains foremost guitarist. The performance was superb and the Theater magnificent.
Tuesday, May 29th Met Bob and Pat Esdale from Kelowna at breakfast this morning. Nice couple who invited us to contact them if we're ever in the area. Bob is a 4 handicap golfer who listed a number of great golf courses in the Kelowna area.
This is Museum day. Toured Mercat Boqueria first thing in the morning. There are 300 stalls of every kind of fresh vegetables, fish, meat etc. We should have waited and had breakfast there at the Sardine
bar.
Then on to the Museu d'histoiria de Catalunya which was very well put together and provided a detailed historical overview of Catalunya and more specifically Barcelona. It was interesting as this Region's relationships with Spain parallels, to some degree, Quebec's relationship with the rest of Canada. Catalunya had obtained autonomous Region status that was written into Spain's Constitution at the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975.
Dinner at a "hole in the wall" Japanese restaurant. We were their only customers and Debra got kind of grumpy. Food was good, there just wasn't very much of it!
Wednesday, May 30th Last day in Spain. Took the Metro to Parc Guell which was originally planned by Gaudi and the Guell family as a housing development, however, it never really got off the ground. There is a Gaudi Museum in thehouse he lived in from 1906 to 1926.
Walked back to the Gracia Spanish District, did some shopping and go for dinner.
Back home tomorrow after almost 5 weeks of travel!
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