Friday, July 29, 2005
28 and 29 July 2005
BARCELONA
Visited Montserrat. Beautiful views from the mountain. Amazing how they built the Basilica and monastery up there. Unfortunately the choir are on holidays for 2 months so i didn´t get to hear them sing. However the inside of the church was well worth it, i queued for half an hour to go to the shrine of the Virgin Mary through tunnels etc all beautifully done with artwork and statues. I nearly missed my tour bus back to Barcelona but made it back on time.
The afternoon I discovered the harbour. Not as nice as ours of course, but very nice and filled with yachts. A nice stroll along the waters edge in the heat. Past the Christopher Columbus statue and saw huge cruise ships. Apparently they get 100 a year in Barcelona.
Evening was spent in the very lively La Ramblas with street entertainers etc. 10 million people visit Barcelona each year since the Olympics in 1992. It is the 2nd most visited place in the world after Paris. So you can just imagine the crowds here. I went to an open'air sidewalk restaurant right in the heart of it all where you can watch the people go by. I celebrated my friend Laura´s birthday with a beer with a Tapas entree of squid and followed by PAELLA, one of my favourite dishes. It was really good but I couldn´t eat it all. Then I heard a young German girl from the table behind me (sitting with 7 others) say in German "Don´t tell me that woman is going to leave all that, I would love to eat it¨". So I turned around and said in German ¨"You are very welcome to the rest of this meal if you like". They all thanked me and gladly took it and giggled at having been caught out. Luckily I remember being a starving young student in Canberra once upon a time. Anyway, it was really funny.
Today I did a full day tour of the city of Barcelona and Gaudi. Included a bull ring, the Picassi Museum, a typical Spanish Village where we stopped for a great lunch (yes, food again mybridge). They served bread with 2 whole tomatoes and 2 unpeeled cloves of garlic and a bottle of oil on the side. Marvellous! I´m thinking of doing the same at my next dinner party.
Also saw the Olympic village, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and my very very favourite spot today, Guell Park. Full of Gaudi´s works of art, i think i am becoming a fan.
And Robert, NO, I didn´t visit Sylvia Sanchez. Do you realise how many Sanchez´s there are in Spain.
Tomorrow will be a free roam around sort of day and then i´m off to France. I opted for an overnight bus leaving at 5.00 pm for Nice. A 10 hour trip. I should get to see a bit of the countryside along the way because it doesn´t get dark until 10 pm.
The reason i have verbal you-know-what today is because i haven´t spoken to anyone in English for 6 days. So thanks for all your emails.
love Gisela
Visited Montserrat. Beautiful views from the mountain. Amazing how they built the Basilica and monastery up there. Unfortunately the choir are on holidays for 2 months so i didn´t get to hear them sing. However the inside of the church was well worth it, i queued for half an hour to go to the shrine of the Virgin Mary through tunnels etc all beautifully done with artwork and statues. I nearly missed my tour bus back to Barcelona but made it back on time.
The afternoon I discovered the harbour. Not as nice as ours of course, but very nice and filled with yachts. A nice stroll along the waters edge in the heat. Past the Christopher Columbus statue and saw huge cruise ships. Apparently they get 100 a year in Barcelona.
Evening was spent in the very lively La Ramblas with street entertainers etc. 10 million people visit Barcelona each year since the Olympics in 1992. It is the 2nd most visited place in the world after Paris. So you can just imagine the crowds here. I went to an open'air sidewalk restaurant right in the heart of it all where you can watch the people go by. I celebrated my friend Laura´s birthday with a beer with a Tapas entree of squid and followed by PAELLA, one of my favourite dishes. It was really good but I couldn´t eat it all. Then I heard a young German girl from the table behind me (sitting with 7 others) say in German "Don´t tell me that woman is going to leave all that, I would love to eat it¨". So I turned around and said in German ¨"You are very welcome to the rest of this meal if you like". They all thanked me and gladly took it and giggled at having been caught out. Luckily I remember being a starving young student in Canberra once upon a time. Anyway, it was really funny.
Today I did a full day tour of the city of Barcelona and Gaudi. Included a bull ring, the Picassi Museum, a typical Spanish Village where we stopped for a great lunch (yes, food again mybridge). They served bread with 2 whole tomatoes and 2 unpeeled cloves of garlic and a bottle of oil on the side. Marvellous! I´m thinking of doing the same at my next dinner party.
Also saw the Olympic village, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and my very very favourite spot today, Guell Park. Full of Gaudi´s works of art, i think i am becoming a fan.
And Robert, NO, I didn´t visit Sylvia Sanchez. Do you realise how many Sanchez´s there are in Spain.
Tomorrow will be a free roam around sort of day and then i´m off to France. I opted for an overnight bus leaving at 5.00 pm for Nice. A 10 hour trip. I should get to see a bit of the countryside along the way because it doesn´t get dark until 10 pm.
The reason i have verbal you-know-what today is because i haven´t spoken to anyone in English for 6 days. So thanks for all your emails.
love Gisela
# posted by Gisela @ 10:19 AM 
