The last blog for this adventure

IWe had a great day yesterday (Monday).  We walked to la Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece.  It took us 1/2 hour to get there and the bonus was walking on the wonderfully wide pedestrian street Sant Joan.  It was so pleasant.  The cars drive in one lane each direction on either side of this, leaving lots of room for walkers, runners, cyclists.  Barcelona also has an Arc de Triomf.  It was built for the 1888 World Fair as the main access gate.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the time on our tickets.  Those who have tickets line up on one side of the basilica while those poor souls who don't have tickets are in a massive line up on the other side.  And groups go in a different gate.  Our time was 10:45 so at precisely that time we were let in.  If you approach the gate before your time you are turned away until the right time.  But once in you do have to line up again to get the audio guide, which turned out to be very worthwhile. Once inside it's really quite ok that you are there with thousands.  It's huge and there is lots of room.  For those who have never been it's really quite breathtaking, astounding and magnificent.  We spent a couple of hours there and thoroughly enjoyed looking up into all the corners, and just imagining Gaudi's creative mind, but all still mathematically correct. The light inside in incredible.  I thought the cathedral in Leon was the best for that, but this is quite different as there are whole walls of colored glass in the most beautiful shades of blues, greens, oranges, reds and yellows. 

This church is still under construction.  The projected completion date is 2026, 100 years since Gaudi died (as a result of a traffic accident). He never meant to finish it in his lifetime as he wanted future generations put their mark on it too. 

There is one pipe organ now but when the church is complete there will be four and choir stalls for 1000 but in what we would call the balcony.  It goes all the way around the nave.

The columns are meant to represent trees growing up strong and branches on top with leaves on them, with light flowing through.  Photos cannot capture the reality of the structure. 

We wandered back to the old town a different way and by the time we got home we had very flat feet!!! For supper we went to the Santa Caterina Market which is just a block or so from our apartment.  It's a large public indoor market.  Closed at 3:30 in the afternoon but a big restaurant at one end is open all evening for dinner from 8-late.  There is a wide range of dishes - not all Spanish.  I chose Mediterran tonight: moussaka and a dish for two of grilled vegetables.  Wendy from the world menu: Yakisoba noodles with prawns and veggies.  We both enjoyed them.  Makes me want to go home and make some moussaka.  

The daily specials were circulating on a reader board in different languages. Pretty cool eh?

We have not felt at all uncomfortable wandering around in the dark here. There are so many people out, locals and tourists, going and coming for dinner or just walking about.  It's very comfortable. Apparently there are areas in town to avoid, night or day, but that is on the other side of Las Ramblas pedestrian street.  

On our last day in Barcelona we stuck pretty close to the old city.  Finally we got into the Barcelona cathedral which is only a couple of blocks from 'home'.  It's important to remember not to wear shorts when you go to visit!!

The very interesting thing about this cathedral is the 13 geese that have been in residence for 500 years, to remember that church's saint.  They have a nice spot in the cloisters and lots of tourists pay attention to them.  We thought they have held their age well!  😀

We did our final browse of El Corte Ingles food floor.  Always a big hit with most tourists in Spain and with us too.  Valor Chocolate - I am only confined by the weight of my suitcase!

Then off for lunch at another recommended spot and this one turned out to be FABULOUS too!  We were just going to get one tapas each and a glass of wine but ended up with 4 tapas 'cause they were sooooo good.  Our recommendee suggested a table outdoors but it was quite hot so we went inside and it was lovely and cool, although packed with lunch-time crowd.  We were lucky to grab a little table right by the bar which was covered in tapas. How to choose??       

We made some great selections (not sure you could go wrong here!) - a crab and shrimp item on a piece of toasted bread and then a ham with goat cheese and honey in a croissant.  That was so good we got another one.  Thanks Doug.

And now we are getting organized for our flight home tomorrow.  We will walk over to the 5:30 am aerobus to the airport.  Flight to Frankfurt then Vancouver and then the hop on to Victoria.  Can hardly believe it's over and we have spent 5 1/2 weeks in France and Spain.  As always we have had a great time.  Thanks for coming along with us!