Barcelona, Spain

Our last stop in Spain and it was a wonderful experience.

Our first outting was to Basilica de la Sagrada Familia… the most beautiful cathedral we have seen, and it is still not finished. Antoni Gaudi was a Catalan architect in the late 1800's/early 1900's. He was the second architect after the first one resigned early in the project. Gaudi was a young man when he took this on and he spent his life creating this masterpeice. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to finish it as he was killed by an evening tram on his way to the church. He was 73 years old. But construction continues today with the hope it will be complete in 2026, 100 years after Gaudi passed.

This cathedral is majestic beyond words, because of it's architecture and design and simple features that create a masterpiece. We could have spent all day there, but let me share just a few things that stand out.

The stained glass windows on each side of the building (east and west) represent the colors of the day. Blue/green in the morning and red/yellows in the late afternoon.

This is the light shining through the glass windows and you can see, we were there in the middle of the day.

Gaudi loved nature and took his inspiration from what God had already created. The pillars were inspired by trees. They have a thick concrete trunk at the base that branches into limbs supporting the structure. In his day, people thought he was crazy. But he said, if God made the trees to stand like this, then it will also work in the church. And he was right.

These are four medallions that are about ten feet tall, mounted on the four primary pillars in the sanctuary. Notice, they are the four gospels of the church, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

There is so much symbolism, it would take a book to explain it all. We had an amazing tour guide and she spent 1.5 hours telling us so much. Some of it was awe inspiring, and some brought tears to your eyes. The story of Jesus never ceases to amaze us and capture our hearts.

The afternoon/evening was spent in la Rambla, the market place. On they way, we found the La Rambla drinking fountain. Folklore says, if you drink from this famous fountain, you will fall in love with Barcelona and always want to return. Keith walked away and said “it's right, I want to come back”.

This is the main walkway in the center of town and we were surprised it wasn't crowded. Unfortunately, there was extensive construction on one side that was very loud and obnoxious. It's not the high season so this was a win for us. It's hard to picture, but this walkway is maybe two miles long. So was the construction.

Our destination was the la Rambla marketplace. We found it… need I say more!

We stopped for a lite dinner of tapas, followed by a gelato treat and it was yummy. These are sauted garlic prawns. Not as good as ours when we catch them in the Puget Sound, but pretty close. I may also be a bit prejudiced.

Each night on our walk home, we pass this beautiful Arc de Triomphe

Picasso lived in Barcelona when he was an early teenager, and he started his painting career. There was another museum that showed the progression of his life and the progressive changes to his style of art. We had a guide and it was much more interesting than the previous museum with just art… lots of weird art.

Our evening event was a cooking class … paella. First stop with the group, the fish market. This was the same market we were at the evening before. But this one had a interesting twist. We were given about 10 minutes to look around while the fishmonger put together the order. Our guide was a young woman who seemed to know her stuff. We got lost in the maze and were about two minutes late, and the group was gone. We were stunned. The fishmonger called her and about 15 minutes later, she returned to retrieve us. She said she had asked “is everyone here" and because no one knew each other, they didn't miss anyone. I asked her why she didn't count her group. Apparently that was a new concept for her, that I expect she'll use in the future.

Everyone participated in the preparation. Only Keith's hand is pictured - he's stirring the skillet. This was an exellent meal and we met some fun people, even a couple who lives in Oro Valley, AZ, just a few miles from us. We exchanged info with Sandy and Saul and look forward to seeing them again when we get back home. It's a small world.

Our last event was a full day trip to the Monserrat Mountains, followed by a gourmet wine tasting and Tapas/lunch in the valley. This mountain range is incredibly unique and this is all the bigger it is. We took a tram/train to the top where there was a little town and monestary.

Here is a view from the top of the mountain and you can see the contours. They call it the serrated mountains becuase it looks like the edge of a serrated knife.

There is a monestary and a boys school in this village. Every day at 1:00, the boys choir sings. We were said to miss it as we had to leave before it started. We went for a quick walk through the cathedral and then grabbed some lunch.

In these mountains is a hole, called the Batman Cave. An Italian Norwegian athlete wanted to fly through the hole. Check out this link. https://youtu.be/8L8UCfxmtSw?si=5Gab5-acIsdExa4H

This was our last day of adventure. The following day was a “beach day" to relax and get ready to move on. Our next stop - France.