Weather: 23º C and sunny

Today was the first day that we used the metro. Very easy system to use for us. There are at least 5 different metro lines in Barcelona. All of them went through the station we were using to get on and all of them went through the station that we wanted to get off, which was also the last stop for each line. Could hardly get it wrong. Typically with large cities the metro seemed to be a great system and inexpensive.

Today we went to the Cathedral that was not far off the Rambla. We also managed another of Gaudi’s houses, one of the first he did, another church, a market and a department store.The cathedral was very interesting. We only had 45 minutes to have a look around and got kicked out. First church we have ever been asked to leave – must have been lunch and siesta time.

The other church, the Santa Maria del Mar was quite interesting. Built in the 14th century the building is very unusual looking for a church. As with most churches built centuries ago in Europe it has been through fires, wars, earthquakes, rebuilds and so on and this church is no different. One of the unusual things we heard about it was that it was gutted by the Catalonians during the Spanish war. The Catalonians were republicans and were against Franco’s rise to power. They were inevitably outnumbered.

Outside the cathedral there were some buskers playing jazz. They had a piano on wheels, a trumpet and a banjo. They were very good and the banjo player sang in a voice that made it sound like he was singing on a 1920s radio (not that we were here then). Later in the day when we were having lunch we heard a lot of music and clapping in an adjacent plaza. It was still going on when we finished so we went along to have a look. There were about 40 people with instruments standing around playing classical music and a large audience supporting them. At first we thought this might have been a flashmob but later on we saw a sign on the ground and after loosely translating it (over the web) later that night, realised it was a protest of some kind about music students fighting for quality in their education. It suggests there have been cutbacks from the government in education, something we are unable to confirm.

The music was fantastic - just as well they stopped or we might have been there all day long. We have recordings of everything but way too big to upload here. One of the things that Barcelona is notorious for is pick pockets. Until today we had not seen nor were part of any robberies. While at lunch an American couple, probably in their late 70s early 80s came back to the restaurant to see if he had left his wallet behind. They had been sitting at the table next to us. It appears he had had his wallet lifted. Hopefully it will not cause them too much grief.

Finally we meant to mention in one of the earlier Barcelona blogs that the Parliament of Catalonia has banned bull fighting since 2012. Barcelona has changed their bull ring into a shopping complex. While we did not visit it we did see it from the bus.

That’s it, we leave Barcelona tomorrow for Valencia and need some good sleep.