August 29 Barcelona Spain

Relaxing breakfast. Then Kirk and Marilyn and Donna and Jim Arrived about 10.30. They had flown over night from Saskatchewan.

They checked in and we headed off about noon. We caught the metro to Sagrada Familia, the famous church that has been getting built for over 500 years. I visited 5 years ago and there seemed to be much less scaffolding up this time. As usual the place was packed. We bought our tickets but could not get in right away so went for lunch at a little restaurant down the street. The church is amazing. Such a collection of styles. Then on to metro again and off to the aquarium. This is great place, right in the middle of the port. really neat as they have a couple of places where you walk through glass tunnels and the water and fish are over top of you. You can actually see the underside of the sharks and the stingrays.

Back onto the metro and off to the Plaza de Espana. A short walk and we got to the place where the city puts on a fountain show. Great music and lots of colors. Amazing how high some of the water spouts are. The number people
was huge. We were early so had dinner at one of the little sidewalk restaurants. The couple in the cafe were great.

They found out we were from Canada and they seemed to give us great service. But I have found that the smaller the place the better the service! The one woman said that we were very lucky as they had changed the program and had been working out the timing of the program and tonight was ls much better than the previous nights.

Everyone was pretty tired so headed back to hotel, but it was almost 10 pm. brother and sister had a very long day.
We had skipped the first day of the tour. The tour did a drive by of the Segrada Familia so they did not go in. I think you have to go in so we decided to do our own thing.


August 28 Barcelona Spain

Did not do much today other than catch the train and a couple of metro lines to the hotel in Barcelona.
Once checked in went to the local shopping mall and had some lunch and then wandered around the mall. Just like any large shopping mall. 2 stories of stores! They did have a discount sporting goods store so I bought another shirt. I could not resist 5 euros, $7.50 for a light quick dry t shirt! Great bargain!
Wandered down the hotel street a bit. Lots of local little shops and of course, several bar/restaurants. Also a large park with a couple of water fountains. The park even had free wifi!

Dinner at a local bar and then to bed. Bus tour starts tomorrow!


August 27 Mataro Spain

Off to do laundry! Some domestic things still have to be done. Nice new laundromat close to a permanent market but today there was also a clothing market. I ended up with a new shirt!
Then off to beach.

At 9 pm went to a Jazz concert at the Torre Llouder. Amazing! Not many people there but the music was excellent. An hour and half of great music by Jimmy McGriff performed by Victor Puertas and his band. He played the organ great but was super when he pulled out his harmonica. Apparently the harmonica is his passion. Also it was very neat to be in Roman ruins to see all this.

This is a link to his band's performance, although not in Mataro

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4E0jDLxjA

Another late night..