Barcelona................

 

        We landed on day-one in Barcelona, a fairly sizeable city.  Depending on where you stop counting, there are about 2 million people living there.  We barely scratched the surface of seeing the city.  Many of the highlights required pre-booking. We only pre-booked one thing: a day-two guided tour of The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's amazing masterpiece (still under construction).  We got on one of the hop-on, hop-of tour buses and saw a considerable amount of the city, without any understanding of much of what we were seeing.  Did drive past Camp Nou, the home of the Barca football team, looking unsuccessfully for the ghost of Lionel Messi.  Did spend an afternoon walking along the Mediterranean Sea.  Was amazed by the amount of graffiti—it was everywhere.  A piece of advice about visiting Barcelona: know what you want to see before you get there, and pre-book it.  But, do go!

The Sagrada Familia

Construction began in 1882.  Expected completion date: 2026

Gaudi loved the play of light.  Stained glass windows create the color pattern

Gaudi loved nature.  The support columns are designed as trees

Another Gaudi designed building

The Catedral

The Catedral

A hotel on the Mediterranean

Spanish architecture seems opposed to straight lines

We were entertained.  A group of younger folk sitting behind us were
singing along with this street performer.  Lots of laughs and smiles

No sense having a beach if you can't enjoy it.