Barcelona

Hey all,

Well I had a bit of a whirlwind tour of Barcelona. I arrived in the afternoon, I did not have a lot of time to start taking tours etc, so I just took a walk down the Ramblas which is the main street.

















I occasionally wandered of f to some nearby plazas to have a look. My first impressions were that is is much more touristy city but also a bit more interesting than Madrid. There were coach tours everywhere, and the Ramblas was packed with tourist shops and human statues. It was still fun to walk down. Back at the hostel I met a lovely young Aussie girl who was on her way home so we went out for a lovely dinner topped off with Gelati....mmmm






The next day I look a bike tour around the city it was a little rainy but it was still warm. Our guide was really cool, a former American who has lived in Barca for 4 years and now lives the good life surfing and taking tours.












We visited the main sites the cathedral, the music hall, arc de triumph, some lovely parks, a bullfighting ring and Gaudi's la Familiar Segrada then down o the beach for a relaxing lunch.














The afternoon was spent with my favorite hobby; shopping. That night back at the hostel (which was really cool) we watch Barcelona F.C suffer defeat to the evils of Chelsea then topped the night off with some Sangria.







The next day I packed a lot in as it was my last day in town. First I had a two hour lunch at a bar in the market, marinated mushrooms, king prawns and marinated chickpea washed down with vino tinto and some cava (sparkling wine). After all that food, I managed to motivate myself to head back to La Familia Segrada to visit inside it. It is such a stunning building. Out of this world really and somewhat over the top and graceful at the same time. It will be interesting to see the cathedral when it is finished and Gaudi's vision complete. The Afternoon was spent wandering around the park Gaudi had designed it was lovely and the weather fine.

I tried to get some sleep that night as I was up early for the ran to nice but it was party night so it was a tired journey.