We had a wonderful tapas dinner and just checked out what was in our immediate neighborhood. Good news, there are three supermarkets a rocks throw from our hostel. Starving in Spain will not be an issue :)
We headed out for our free waking tour of the city this morning and had an excellent tour guide. She was born here but raised in Ireland and came back to see where she came from. So many things learned today about the history of Spain and Catalonia- and the ongoing struggle. The legends, traditions, and of course the architecture. It's amazing to literally see the different time periods of a building. The bottom stones start off as large Roman boulders and the top is present day material.(saw a little Picasso drawing on the way)
We visited the very large church of Santa Maria of the Sea and Cathedral Santa Eulalia. A walk down La Rambla (main street) was nice and I can't wait to go back and explore it more in depth. There is A LOT going on there. The tour ended at the Parc Montjuic. Sybille told us there was a Gaudi fountain on the other side so we were off!
The picture doesn't accurately depict the enormity of this piece. There is so much going on.
Picasso museum after that ( free the first Sunday of the month-YAY!) Restaurant Rodrigo was our lunch stop and we shared paella and a pitcher of sangria. Both were so delicious!
We walked across town to what was my highlight of the day. I was so excited to see the Casa Ballto! This is a house that the famous artist/architect Antonio Gaudi designed for the Ballto family. There are no words...four levels of imagination and creativity. Sweeping arches, windows and doorways looking like waves and the colored glass and mosaics. I can't decide what my favorite room was. I can't wait to go see Sagrada Familia church to see more of his brilliant work.
Hurrying back across town as night fell we headed to the magic Fountain of Mountjuic for the water and light show. We sat through 5 shows so clearly we hated it ;)
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