Barcelona

 

Beautiful Barcelona! We left the ship by way of a tour to the 1000 year old monastery on a mountain called Montserrat (see photos 1 and 3). The monastery is magnificent and since it has been attacked, severely damaged and repaired numerous times it includes buildings and features dating from mediaeval times right through to the more modern additions after the civil war of the 1930s. The views from the mountain are magnificent, even allowing for the mist that kept drifting over us.

Our hotel was in Catalunya Square in the heart of the city. We took the hop-on-hop-off bus as a way of having a good look around without making our poor tired feet and legs suffer any more. The city is very clean and everything looks well maintained. We loved the variety of architecture which includes the apartments with pretty iron lace balconies that we have seen in other Mediterranean cities, 19^th century public buildings and modern office buildings (see photo 4). The avenues are wide and tree lined and there are many spacious public squares usually adorned with beautiful classical fountains and displays of flowers.

The most fascinating building we saw is the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (see photo 2). Construction started in 1882 and even through it was opened in 2010 construction is expected to continue until 2041! Because it is being built in stages you can see the differences in the older and newer building materials and the variety of architectural styles. It is an amazing mix of gothic and other styles including modernist and art nouveau.

Barcelona has a reputation as a haven for pickpockets and the like, so we were very careful. We found it interesting that at least two restaurants that we checked out on our first night urged customers to clip their bags to security devices they provided under the tables. But even with the need to be careful we did not feel uncomfortable – quite the opposite in fact. It is a great place to visit.

We are uploading this from Doha where we are spending a week with our very dear friend Christopher.  So we will blog again sometime in the next few days.  It is great to stay in a home, and he is just as thrilled as we are to see each other again.