3rd time lucky with this entry! Buenos dias amigos! I am afraid to inform you that it is now back to Lucy doing the blog, if I had known Minty would have got such a good reception I'd never have let him near it...
Today has been really wonderful, we packed a lot in. When we woke up I looked straight out the window - it was overcast again!! I was really disappointed as we have been told that San Sebastian rains 'all the time' so I realised I had to get my tan on if I wanted to impress people back home.. Then again it was an Aussie tour guide who told us this so she has a warped view on things. We persevered and in a very English manner went to the beach anyway, we lay under the clouds for about 2 hours and listened to the waves, it finally got sunny around lunch time but we got bored quickly (where's the fun without a chase?) and came back to the hostel.
We dashed off to the other side of the city to get to 'the Queen Vic', it was showing the football... Luckily for me, United won, so Minty was happy to be at my beck and call for the rest of the day and we went off to do slightly more 'Lucy' things. We went to a place called the 'Devils Kitchen' for dinner, a German burger bar - naturally. I found it while on the Internet during the football, it was rated 11th out of 3000 in Barcelona and was close and cheap. We enjoyed our time there, had some great burgers and the waiter was really friendly (definitely impressed when I said 'Sehr gut, dankeschön'). It was an odd crowd, one man was wearing a dog collar about 2 inches thick.. But it was nice to have such good food in a very efficient manner.
We then proceeded to get the tube to Plaça Espanya, we weren't entirely sure what to expect there but I knew that there was a sound and water show so we had to go there! We walked up to the magnificent building that is the MNAC, their national art gallery, and carried on up and around it to see the old Olympic Park, once again, we were treated to some really lovely spectacular views. We settled down on the steps of the gallery at 9 to watch the sun set and then the fountains start. I loved it! After a while we walked right down next to it which was even better, there were waterfalls coming down the steps towards the amazing centre piece, we were both awestruck with the effect of really thick mist, it looked computer animated. Minty loved it because it was mainly the sound of Spanish versions of Disney songs so he got to hear me singing along.... After about 45 minutes of this he dragged me away (probably just emotional at the beauty of it all) and we got the tube to Sagrada Familia - Gaudis Cathedral for the Holy Family. This was just as magical as the fountains but rather than being electric and kind of tacky, it's eccentric and whacky! (I should suggest that for their guide book) - seriously though it reminded me of something from a fairy tale, he was obviously round the bend but so so talented. It is the source of much debate among the locals, as many believe it should have been left as it was when he died in 1926 after being hit by a tram, but we ate glad they have continued to build it, it is amazing - and so weird. The entire thing is built to perfection, it is really solid structure but has so much detail... Such as one turret being made to look like a tree with doves in, and we noticed a lone bronze figure just sat on one of the beams. The variation was really interesting too, some of it looked like stalactites, some like it had plastic bags over it and some that looked like dough. These are all personal observations obviously - google it!
So yes, it has been a magical day. Especially when Man Utd won the Community Shield.
Off to Madrid tomorrow!!
:)