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The first stop this morning was to reception. There they gave us the missing tickets and apologized for the inconvenience. The first place we wanted to see was La Sagrada Familia, so we set out in that direction looking for a cafe for breakfast. They had some great meals with bacon, eggs, and croissants, but I opted for the churros to see if they were any different than the little stand from yesterday. Nope. The chocolate was better, more like pudding once you let it cool a little, but I still like the Mexican style churros much better.
The line outside La Sagrada was long, even this early in the morning, but it moved quickly. The official name is Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (quite a mouthful), and it is a UNESCO world heritage site, even though it is not finished. It was started in 1882. Antonio Gaudi became involved in 1883 and completely transformed the project. He died in 1926 when the project was just over a quarter of they way finished. Progress has been slow as it is solely funded by private donations and whatever is raised with the ticket sales. Normally I avoid paying to enter a church at all costs, but I was happy to contribute to such an impressive work of art. We bought our tickets, they boys were free, and we were just as blown away by the inside of the church as the outside. The ceilings were the highest I have ever seen, with skylights at the top making it look like you could drift right on up to heaven (or God could drift down). I loved how bright it all was, much different than most of the dark, gothic style cathedrals of Europe. Dad and Ben wanted to ride up the tower to have a look at the view, but unfortunately you had to pay for that when you got your entrance ticket. We weren't standing in that line again, so they left a little bit disappointed.
Across the street, we boarded one of the hop-on/off buses and headed for Parc Guell, another one Gaudi's masterpieces. A local Count originally planned to build an elite housing complex here. He hired Gaudi to start shaping the grounds with elaborate style work, statues, terraces, and a couple of show buildings. Sadly, the idea failed because no one wanted to live in the area. Eventually Gaudi bought one of the buildings off of the Count and moved into one of the houses with his father. Today is has been converted into a Municipal garden and is free to visit and walk about the interesting designs.
After spending about an hour wandering the grounds, we boarded the bus and headed back towards Placa de Catalunya. We intend to get lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, however, there was an hour wait. We opted to just get Ben his signature T-shirt and headed across the street to the McDonalds.
After lunch the boys chased some pigeons in the square before switching bus lines and moving on to the castle on Montjuic. The bus climbed up the hill quite a ways, then dropped us off near a cable car station, where we climbed even higher. 170 meters above sea level, on a rocky terrace, stands this old military fortress with cannons and amazing views over the Barcelona ship yard. A fort was originally built here in 1640 during a revolt against Felipe IV, but in 1751 it was demolished and the present for was built in it's place. It had 120 cannons and housed 3,000 at one time. It was the sight of many battles and executions. It remained a military prison until 1960, when it was converted to a military museum and handed over to the city by the army.
They boys enjoyed climbing up on all the cannons and Ben taught Maddox how to give a proper salute. The afternoon was quickly turning into evening and getting colder. We rode the bus a while longer, listening to the audio guide about the city, but we did not get off at any other stops. We ordered some paella for dinner and took it back to the apartment. With that last taste of Spain, we labeled our trip a success and started packing up for our early bus departure back to Girona Airport.
The flight home was much more pleasant and the people were extremely more polite than the passengers we met in Bonn. Tragically, one of our handy umbrella strollers was broken in transit. We put one of the boys in it anyway and "click, click, clicked" our way back to the car. Looks like we'll be investing in stroller number 4 before our next trip.
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