Barcelona

It's the weekend in London, and where are Laura and Kevin?  No where
to be found!

Laura, Kayley, Julie and I had booked a couple of rooms in Barcelona
Spain a little while ago.  We had three nights in the city, leaving on
Saturday and returning on Tuesday.  We were lured in by the cheap
prices and the promise of sun, beach and sea food.

Conveniently enough, on Saturday Brian was coming through Heathrow
after spending some time in Barcelona.  We met up with him at the
Paddington Hilton to get the low-down on Barcelona, he gave us a
little map-guided tour and showed us pictures, so we knew where we
needed to go and had a good idea of how to do it.  After a quick ride
on the Heathrow Express, we were able to take advantage of his rather
comfortable amount of baggage allowance to send back home two enormous
bags in anticipation of our Canadian home-coming.  I was worried that
one of the bags was over weight.  That is to say, it *was* over weight
and I was worried about it.  But the Air Canada Executive Class
concierge didn't bat an eyelash and took it away from us and
everything arrived in Canada safely.

Brian took off in the early afternoon, so Laura and I wandered around
Terminal 1 awaiting Julie and Kayley.  When they arrived we snacked
and waited for our British Airways flight.

As per usual, Heathrow was a zoo, but we weren't stuck in taxiing
traffic for too long.


The flight was quick and the BA flight attendants fed us well (Tuna
Salad and Bloody Mary's).  A nice taxi driver brought us to our hotel,
the AC Barcelona, which is on the east end of the city attached to the
convention centre about 400 meters from the beach.  Once again we were
able to cash in on a cheap deal at a great hotel.

The pool on the 13th floor had a great view over the ocean and over
the mountains to the north.


First stop, Sagrada Familia.  Construction started on this brute of a
building in 1882, and Antoni Gaudy took over as head architect one
year later.  His designs are very organic looking and can be seen
dotted all over Barcelona.

The church itself is nowhere near complete.  When Gaudy died after
being hit by a tram in 1926, only one end of the church was complete. 
Construction slowed after the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, but
picked up again in the 50's, and now it's going strong with funding
from over 3000 visitors a day, each paying 8 euros to get in.

We walked up the stairs through a very slow-moving line of people and
eventually got some great pictures of the church and overcame feelings
of vertigo as we ascended the narrow towers.


After taking nearly 100 pictures of the inside and outsides of the
church, we left to go see Guell Park, but on-route we had a little
hic-up.  When getting onto the Metro, one of Julie's flip-flop shoes
did as their name implies and flipped off of her foot and fell down
onto the track below the train that we were getting onto.  We made a
bit of a scene as we sorted out what the best course of action would
be.  At the next stop it was determined that Laura and I would go back
and see if the flip-flop could be salvaged.  One-shoed-Julie and
Kayley stayed behind.

The flip-flop was not smooshed by the train, and according to the
overhead electronic sign, there were about 90 seconds before the next
train arrived, so I waved my hands around to the Spanish people on the
platform in the universal symbol for "It's ok, don't worry, I'm not
trying to kill myself, I'm just jumping down onto the tracks to get a
shoe".  Alas, nobody understood.  But I was quick enough about jumping
down and jumping back out that by the time anyone let out a peep I was
wandering  nonchalantly down the platform with a flip-flop in my hand.


Eventually we made it to Guell Park, the Gaudy designed park that was
supposed to be a natural and nice kind of neighbourhood for the
future.  After a lack of funding, the city bought the land and made it
into a park.

We're grateful because it makes a great place to sit and have a pint
of Spanish beer.


We caught the end of a mas at the Barcelona Cathedral

This is quite the church.  Much like other Catholic churches, you can
buy a candle and light it at the church, but this one also has a
machine where you can pop in 50 cents and it will turn on a little
fake-candle LED for you.
.
I couldn't believe it.

After enjoying our free mini-bar and trying out the pool/hot tub/steam
room, we went to a little fair that going on outside of our hotel.
We had Gazpacho, Cava (like Champagne), Olives and hot dogs.


Then it was up and around a very large and very fast moving merry-go-round.


The next morning it was off to the beach!  The weather was nice, and
the water was pretty good by Canadian standards.  Which meant that
nobody but us were in the water.  But the beach was packed!


Walking towards the Olympic park on the top of the mountain, we
happened upon a world record attempt to produce the largest pot of
paella.  Paella is a rice dish that the Spanish are famous for.
We saw lots of people eating it, so we got in line to buy some.  But
as it turned out, they were giving it away for free!  There was
chicken, calamari, shrimp and muscles in it.  They were also giving
away some kind of mulled liqueur from a giant tub.

Today serendipity reared its friendly face in the form of a free lunch!

Then we climbed up to the Olympic Park and saw the buildings
constructed for the 1992 summer Olympics.

Some of it looked as though it was straight out of a Star Trek episode.

We took advantage of the nice grass and had a good lie down.  But
Julie got us moving.


We then made our way to Tipidabo mountain where we had coffee and
looked out over the city.


Before going to sleep for our final night in Barcelona, Julie jumped
straight into a bath tub full of cold water to sooth her rather burned
feet.


Here are all the pictures.

This weekend (today) we're flying out to Berlin!  I suppose I should get packed!