Wow. What a day. We saw so much, but man am I sore and tired. It's now 11:59pm and we've been all over Barcelona. I got up about 8am and while Megan and Brad showered and got ready, I went on a little walk to see if I could find a store for some breakfast stuff, but almost everything I found was closed. I'm not sure if it's because it was Sunday, or because it was too early, or a combination of those, but after wandering around for about 30 minutes I ended up just coming back and buying a Red Bull from the gas station next to our hotel. Megan did the post from the day we left that turned into yesterday when we arrived. We decided to take turns taking the pictures for the day and writing up the blog. Today is my turn. We decided to just tour around and see as much as we could in Barcelona, so we started driving in toward the main part of town and found a place to park right off the Plaza Espana and on the route for the Barcelona Open Top Bus tour. We hoped on the bus and drove around and listened to the narrative in English about what we were passing. We started in the Mont Juic area which was site of a lot of the 1992 Olympics and the main stadium. We found out that it's named Mont Juic because there used to be a Jewish cemetery on the hill area and that's why it's now named that. We then drove down by the port are and saw some huge yachts, lots of sail boats, and some cool areas to walk and shop. We came up to Plaza Catalunya (the main/central Plaza in Barcalona) and switched buses from the red line (South Barcelona) to the Blue line (north). That took us through some neat shopping and architecture and then we got off at the Basillica Sagrada Familia. This is the icon of Barcelona and was started nearly a hundred years ago and they indicated they hope to have it finished by I think 2026. It was designed by Antonio Guadi (a famous architect who left a number of iconic works in Barcelona). He was ahead of his time and a lot of his designs are very art neveau. We went to get tickets and although it was about 1pm, we found the soonest we could get tickets for was like 3pm, so we bought tickets for 3:30pm and decided to do more of the blue line and then come back. A couple stops later we stopped and walked to Park Guell which was designed by Guadi. One the way to the park we saw a neat store that I ended up buying a pink shirt for Mitzi with a lizard on it (partly because she just got a lizard and loves them), and FC Barcelona hat for Ian. There were lots of really cool designed paths, bridges, and such. There was a girl playing a funky metal dome that had some different shapes around it and depending on where she tapped it and how hard it made different tones. It was really quit neat and made some beautiful music. I told Megan she needed to learn to play that. We walked up to a high point with a cross on it that had an absolutely amazing view over all of Barcelona. We knew we were running a little tight on time so we quickly headed back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus but those done run very quick. By the time we made it back to Sagrada Familia it was already 4pm and we were hoping we weren't too late. We made it and toured around the Basilica. Wow is it amazing. It looks very random, but as you go around and read about how it was designed you realize there is a ton of symbolism that was put into it's design and also a lot of careful design to hold the weight and design. I've seen many amazing churches and cathedrals through Europe and this is very different due to it's more modern design. Brad was pretty fascinated as well. We then decided to head toward the beach and hoped to find a Doner Kabab shop as we were getting pretty hungry. We walked all the way back to Plaza Catalunya and shortly thereafter found several right after each other. We walked through La Rambla all the way down to the port and then took the bus to the Port Olympic (which housed the Olympic athletes). I was hoping to find a beach towel to buy and/or a place to change into our swim suits, which we had brought, but I didn't find either. It was already getting later so we decided Meg would just walk in the water and hang with Brad while I walked a little more looking to see if I could find a beach towel, which I never could. I eventually ended up joining them but we were only there maybe a half hour all together as we had read that the last bus was at like 8pm so we went to catch the bus. We rode it back towards where we had parked our car but found the larges little convenience/grocery store that I had seen open, so we got off about a stop early and hit the store to buy a few things for breakfast in the morning. We then started walking towards the car and realized that we had parked nearly to where they do the Magic Fountain of Mont Jiuc that they have water/light shows at that they start at 9:30pm, and it was just after 9pm, so we realized we had timed it perfectly as there were already tons of people there. We watched most of the show but then Meg and I were both getting tired and our feet were killing us so we walked back to the car and waited for Brad. We finally headed back to our hotel and made it back probably around 11pm. Brad did his post and Megan and I took showers. Now Megan is fast asleep and Brad went out exploring for a little bit and it's nearly 12:30pm and I'm exhausted, so I'm heading to sleep and hopefully Brad won't be too long or get into any trouble.
An interesting hotel I saw while out on my walk in the morning.
Megan typing up here blog for the day at our hotel.
Meg and Brad just after we parked our hotel. At night the Magic Fountain show was just at the end of this road and it was packed. Also there were fountains up both sides of the street that were shooting water at night.
As we were on the open bus tour, at each of the stops the bus made, people would throw their headphones they give out on top of the bus stop.
Brad and meg Just off the Plaza Catalunya
At the Park Guell
Great picture with all of Barcelona just behind us.
The Sagrada Famila was amazing.
Brad tried riding the lion at the Christopher Columbus monument.
Megan loves the beach. She's thinking of applying for a lifeguard position here now that she's the head life guard at South Jordan Rec. Center.
Grabbing a bite for breakfast. It's always interesting shopping in a foreign store and trying to figure out what things are.
The Magic Fountains at Mont Juic were pretty cool.
