Barcelona

We ate tapas. We took leisurely walks in the "afternoon" (10 pm at night) and stopped to have a meal consisting of different appetizers. What a good idea! It is a great way of trying new things without getting stuck with a big plate of food you don't like but feel obligated to eat because you paid for it.

Years ago, Matthew and I had tapas for the first time. We stopped at what seemed to be a fancy restaurant and we were astonished at the low prices ... until our orders arrived on teeny tiny plates with two or three bites of food on them. We had our few bites and then left the restaurant confused and not very pleased. Years later, we learned what tapas meant and now we have sincerely gained an appreciation for tapas.

We strolled the Rambla. Think of a rambla as a place you can ramble (to move about aimlessly). Ramblas are super-duper wide boulevards that people walk on. They are usually between the two lanes of a street (like a boulevard) though sometimes there are no streets and it is just a walkway.

Ramblas are very common in Spain. In Barcelona, the main rambla is filled street performers, shops, and people. The kids loved all the street performers and could have spent a whole day on the Rambla. There was quite a variety of street performers ... statues, dancers, puppeteers, pranksters, etc. The last one we saw was a man painted green who sucked his stomach way way in and then moved his muscles. I wasn't very impressed so I didn't take a picture. A few blocks later, Elena stopped, lifted her shirt to show her stomach, and did the same thing as the stomach-sucking performer. Suddenly, I thought it was really cool. But, we could not convince Elena to do it on the Rambla.

We saw our friend Cristal. Cristal shares one of the greatest blessings in our life - our friend, Katiuska (Katty) Gonzalez. Last year, Cristal and her friend, Edgar, invited us to Spain (one of the requirements of the residential visa application). We may not be in Spain if it had not been for Cristal and Edgar.

We climbed up to Castillo de Montjuïc and walked down through Olympic Village. The castle was pretty cool and most of it was free. Olympic Village wasn't nearly as cool as we imagined. Sidewalks were not maintained and some almost completely washed away. Much of the area seemed deserted, overgrown, and not really being utilized. If Chicago hosts the 2016 Olympics, I sure hope they design it to be useful after the olympics are over.


We experienced the Magic Fountain. The Magic Fountain is water, lights, colors and music coordinated together. It is amazing to watch ... especially when you consider that it was built in 1929 before modern technology that could make it easier. [Some websites and tourist books say that the Magic Fountain runs every 30 minutes. After waiting almost an hour, we were told that it starts at 9 pm. The color, water, and light show started at 9 pm and the music chimed in at about 9:20 pm.]

Gaudí. We went to see Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia ... both from the outside where it was free. We also walked up and down and in and out and through Parc Güell. That was really cül. I used to think that the word gaudy originated from the description of Antonio Gaudí's architecture. It didn't. Gaudí's architecture appears gaudy in pictures but it looks and feels really impressive when you're there.

Gaudí began building the Sagrada Familia church but died before he finished (construction continues today). One of his goals for the church architecture was to inspire people to look up toward heaven. It worked.

Finally, we went swimming and we had the beach to ourselves!