Barcelona

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As expected, we easily got into Barcelona this morning and as we can only spare one day to look round the city, took the open top bus on two routes which gave us a brief view of the major sites and gave useful transport connections. We did visit the cathedral which was covered in scaffold and walked down the Ramblas the most famous street in Barcleona. Whilst going down the Ramblas we were particularly taken with Mercant Sant Joseph, a frenetic produce market and Plaça Reial, an Italianate square studded with palm trees.

As this was our last day in Spain we had a long paella lunch in Barceloneta, the fish restaurant area.

In the afternoon we got off the bus to visit La Sagrada Familia, the well known modernist temple which has been under construction since 1882, is expected to be completed in 2035 ( there was a break in construction between 1930 and the late 50s) and has been entirely funded by public subscription. The original architect was the famous Catalan, Antoni Gaudi. The place is the most impressive building site I have ever visited and gives a real feel of what it must have been like to see cathedral building in the middle ages (except they didn’t have cranes and reinforced concrete).

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