Final Day

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Today is the last full day of my journey. It's a little bittersweet but I am ready to return home. The blur of Gothic, Baroque, museums, cathedrals, "de la" whatever, is starting to become overwhelming. Today, I'm going to just relax, do a little windowshopping, sit by the sea, and visit the Picasso Museum (maybe).

I arrived in Barcelona Sunday night after an exhausting and stressful 10 hour train ride from Nice. Besides my issue with the conductor and having to pay an enormous amount of money to get to Barcelona (my Eurailpass was not honored), I had to become a second class passenger, which is far different than a first class passenger) and endure the smell of burning oil all aong the way. There were, however, some incredible vistas to be viewed. What God has made is simply amazing!!! The cliffs set against the sea and the villages sitting amidst the cliffs...wow. Anyway, this last train trip was also the only one where police came onboard to inspect passports. When I first noticed it, the person who came to me had on a striped polo shirt and shorts. He asked to see my passport. I was like "And who are YOU?"After all, you don't just show your passport to anyone. He showed me his "Polizia" badge wrapped around his badge. About 15 minutes later, a uniformed policeman came aboard and asked to see passports. By now, I was a little suspicious - especially of the man that was sitting across from me; he was not very friendly and kept grasping this portfolio that he was carrying and also kept walking between coaches. After a longer delay, I asked what was going on. I was told that only at the borders between France and Spain do they ask to see passports. Phew! Of course my mind was thinking "terrorists."

My hotel room in Barcelona is very nice. I am staying at a historic hotel across from the famous Cathedral, located in one of the busiest, lively plazas in Barcelona. The plaza has cafes, musicians, and people streaming everywhere. Last night, there was a young man singing operatically in the middle of the square. He had a very beautiful, very melodic voice. After his performance, people put coins in the hat that was sitting in front of him. I think this guy must make a great living doing this. There are also the people, primarily women, who sit on the streets with their heads covered with scarves and bent over in what appears to be shame. These are the very poor who sit with a cup in front of them and a hand held out. You do not see their faces and they sit in the fetal position. There was not as much money in their cups. What does this say about humanity?

Back to yesterday. I went on a bicycle tour around Barcelona. Very nice tour. We saw many sites of interest. Numerous structures here were architecturally designed by Gaudi; he had a very unique style. Envision a swampy, mossy tree and try to turn that look into a building. Difficult, isn't it? Well, that's what Gaudi's buildings remind me of - moss trees. Gaudi died in 1929 after being hit by a streetcar. The people did not recognize him, thought he was a homeless individual and left him to die in the streets. Another view of humanity...Anyway, part of the bike tour was a 45 minute beach break for lunch. Finally, a chance to spend some time by the water!! Last night, I also saw a Flamenco show. What a passionate dance style! So fierce! The whole audience felt the passion and we were steadily shouting "Ole" and "Bravo" to the dancers. By the way, I would have liked to experience a bullfight, but they are only done on Sundays. I asked our tour guide if the bull ever wins or is it always the matador who wins. It's the matador and the bulls are actually killed. On the other hand, maybe I did not want to see a bullfight...

I am going to end now. It's time to get my day started and I want to move at a leisurely pace. Please tune in for the addition of photos to this blog site. I'm also still reading my book "With Purpose" and may continue to make notes of the comments and ideas that I find particularly insightful.

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