Barcelona Sat June 13

Ate lunch at the snack bar in the hotel.  Wasn’t too shabby.  Grabbed two cabs and drove to the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia.  The Pope was here last week to bless the facility, and we are glad we didn’t have to fight those crowds!  The exterior of the facility is finally complete, like after 200 years or something.  The cranes and scaffold can still be seen, but they are being removed.  Next remodel is an addition and then interior work.  Very tall, very massive building!

Walking up to the Basilica

Standing in front of the building.  Tickets to enter are not available until Fri, Jun 26!
Plan ahead if you’re ever wishing to see it from the inside!

Next we took a taxi to the Castillo de Montjuic (built in 1640) - a beacon of Barcelona’s rich history standing like a sentinel atop Montjuic hill.  To get there, we took a single cable car up, but broke ourselves into two cable cars coming back down just for more room.

One side of the “crew” as we ascended - East side of Barcelona and the Med in the background

From the gondola, a small slice of Barcelona looking W into the hills.
The town and surrounding area holds a population of 6 million people.
The land mass is 40 square miles (102 sq km).

This is looking back downtown with the Basilica in the middle and mountains in the back.

Finally we have made it to the castle.
This is the old moat, now a beautiful garden.

This is overlooking the cliffs from the “hill” the fort sits upon as it protects the Med

The entrance to the castle

A large, motley and very tired crew.
Going to be early tonight!


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