To Barcelona! - Day 6, 7

After working Thursday, we flew to Barcelona to meet up with our good friends Kevin and Laurel. We arrived without incident and we all went out to dinner at El Raco in the Eixample.

Friday morning we started out with our tour guide, Kevin, who graciously took the day off work to show us around town. We met up at the train station with Michelle, someone Laurel works with, who is visiting from Canada. The four of us then took the metro to to Las Ramblas where we took in the sights and sounds as we walked towards the water. Along the way, we stopped at the Mercat de la Boqueria. It's quite a market, with tons of produce, meat (often scary), spices, and fish. After leaving the market, we continued, and marvelled at the various street performers and their amazing costumes.

At the end of the road is the Christopher Columbus Monument, next to the maritime museum which used to be a shipyard where they built ships on an assembly line ending in the water. We turned at the waterfront, and headed to the Plaça Reial for lunch where we ate tapas.

After lunch, we toured the Barcelona Cathedral starting in the cloisters, which is a kind of garden area, pretty cool. The cathedral itself is quite amazing as well. An elevator inside took us to the roof for some great views of the surrounding area. From there, we went to Gaudi's famous work in progress, Sagrada Familia. This place is absolutely amazing. Still under construction and far from complete (e.g. 50 more years), it is a feast for the eyes. The stained glass windows (the few that have been installed) are bright and colorful, very different from normal.

Inside the cathedral, there is a long line for an elevator up one of the towers to some excellent views and a series of spiral staircases down. There are viewpoints all along the way where you can look up, across, and down on the other areas of this massive building.

After descending the stairs and touring the museum, we found much needed gelato and met up with Laurel once again. We then took the metro and a bus to Park Güell to see more of Gaudi's work and enjoy the park. We walked from there to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner. We bid Michelle farewell and headed back to sleep.