We arose for breakfast as usual and boarded the bus (not ours, but a different one). José-Luis heard a funny noise as we were pulling into Barcelona so he took our bus to get it repaired. Our guide’s name was Estrella, which means star. She was very nice. She narrated many things as we drove around Barcelona. We drove past the Olympic Stadium, the Columbus Monument, and the face of Barcelona done by Lichtenstein, “La Bercela” as well as many other sites until we stopped at “La Sagrada Familia” or “The Sacred Family.” This church was originally designed by Antonio Gaudí but has had many architects since then. There are four sides, and each one is different. The first side we saw depicted the birth of Christ. You can see the story from many small clusterings of statues. He also included many plants and things from nature, as he was an active ecologist. The opposite side was the passion and death of Christ done in a very different style by a very different architect, Subirache. The story is read in the form of an “S.” Some speculate that it stood for Subirache and others think it stood for Satan, so this side has been very controversial. As a tribute to Gaudí, Subirache designed the Roman soldiers There are currently 4 bell towers.reached Mont Juich where we got off of the bus. We walked around Park Güell for awhile. Mr. Güell was a wealthy man who befriended Antonio Gaudí and became his benefactor. Mr. Güell saw houses in London with private gardens and wanted to replicate that for Spain in Barcelona, where he lived. He bought a large piece of land with the intention of dividing it up into 60 plots for houses to be built. There would be lush gardens all around these houses. He commissioned Gaudí to plan the streets and common areas. Gaudí used the mosaic tile method called “Trencadiz” to construct the benches in the common square as well as the marketplace. This is also the method that was used on the Opera House in Valencia. The benches were flowing in and out so as to maximize the amount of people who could sit in them. They are very comfortable. The tiles felt cool to sit on, and the way they were curved made it incredibly comfortable (as you can see from Mr. Kim reclining). Then we got back on the bus and saw two houses in town designed by Gaudí: la Casa Milà and Battló. They had to make special furniture to go in his houses because of the strange designs and lack of corners. Gaudí favored the curves. We ended our bus tour at the Barcelona Cathedral, where we witnessed several girls who were refused entrance because of the way they were dressed. I am proud to say that not one person from our group was stopped! The cathedral is currently being renovated solely by donations. After the visit at the cathedral we split up into three smaller groups and rambled down “Las Ramblas,” which is the major thoroughfare of Barcelona. There is a large boulevard in the middle with many colorful characters. Some were quite impressive. One man stayed frozen until someone put money into his hat, then he danced the moonwalk for them! My group went to the change booth to exchange money. I was having issues with my credit card, so could not exchange any money, but Brittany and Alex succeeded. Then we ate lunch at a café nearby. The hot chocolate was so thick! Serena was able to find her coke bottle. She is collecting them from different countries. We went to the Carrefour (I know it’s a French grocery store, but it was in Spain!) and Alex bought some Disney Princess mini-cakes for her birthday tomorrow, so we started calling her “Princess Mini-cakes!” We browsed the many stores in search of a book for Serena. She had finished the three books she had brought and was looking for another one for the long bus ride to France tomorrow. We found some books in English, but none that really interested her. They were in “El Corte Inglés.” We also used the restrooms there. We all met up around 4:40pm and walked to the “Art Escudellers” where we became Gaudí wannabes. We tried our hand at trencadiz, tile art. We got to smash tiles them glue them onto the top of boxes. It was great fun! Best of all, it was in a cool, air-conditioned basement! We then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We took the metro back and even had to change stations once. Everyone was so good! They all stayed together and I believe have gotten down how to use the metro system in Barcelona. It’s a good thing, too, because it is similar in Paris. The platforms were narrower than in Paris, but the ride was smoother. They were very clean, too! Guy took Ana and Rachel to look for some DVDs for the bus ride while Mr. Kim led us back to the hotel. We eventually got there! Lol Then we all dressed up (many in new dresses they bought in Madrid) and walked to dinner. We ate at “El 106 restaurant.” It was so delectable! We began with a salad (no corn this time!) then had Fideua, which is paella with noodles instead of rice and calamari (squid). Our dessert was a “tarta de manzanas” (apple tart) with cherry sauce on the side. It almost looked too beautiful to eat…almost! What a tiring day! It was really hot, too.
