Barcelona

Quote of the day: “I took a break just by the corner of the church, and when I looked around, you had all disappeared. The guide had to come back and look for me. You better keep me on a leash for the rest of the tour.”

Today we both hit the wall! After 3 wonderful days of trotting around doing our own thing, we both ran out of energy and decided we needed to take things a bit easier today. So after a leisurely breakfast, and a couple of coffees, we grabbed a last minute bus tour to hit the major sights of Barcelona.

The outstanding parts of the tour were the Gaudi designed buildings – the strange and surreal Cathedral (still under construction after over 100 years), and houses that make the architecture of Barcelona unique. We also took in the Olympic centre, and the lovely park area on the hill above the city.

By the end of that, we had recovered our energy, so instead of returning to the ship, we headed off on our own, down the gondola (I still hate those things) and along the road to the Joan Miro Foundation Gallery. I’ve been a fan of his work for a while, but only seen the occasional piece on our travels, so this place was a real treat – it has a huge collection of his paintings, as well as a number of sculptures, and a great video presentation about his life and work. Well worth the visit, and they did a decent coffee there too…

JB successfully navigated us back to the centre of town, and through the old city, where we had an early dinner: tapas, sangria, and Catalan bread. We sat out on the edge of a large piazza, and soaked in the atmosphere. A stroll down La Rambla, the main street full of stalls and entertainers, rounded off another great day.