As Ana was fighting a sore throat Tom, Bruce and I headed off to explore Barrio Gotic and walk up to Sagrada Familia.
El Gotic is the original barrio or village of Barcelona. There are parts of the Roman wall in evidence. The Placa de Sant Jaume is the municipal centre of Barcelona bracketed by two impressive facades - the Generalitat and Ayuntament. There was also a sculpture in nearby Placa de Sant Miguel that looked like giant, twisted chicken wire.
We walked up Carrer de Bisbe towards the Catedral, past a building with amazing gargoyles and Placa de Garriga i Bachs where I gather executions used to occur.
The Catedral is a most impressive gothic facade. We could not enter as it had just closed in preparation for a service.
We walked on past incredible buildings and quickly found ourselves in the shopping precinct of Avenida del Portal de l'Angel near the Placa Catalunya. Oddly, there were no cafes around so we found a shady spot in the busy Placa Catalunya and ate our baguettes.
Up to Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes we found the first cafe which catered to our need for bebidas but at a surprisingly high price.
Gran Via contains many fine buildings, most seem to be apartments.
We arrived at La Sagrada Familia. What an amazing design. It is still under construction but there is no doubt that already this is an outstanding world landmark. It is expected to be completed between 2020 and 2040. Clearly a lot of people thought so as the queue goes around the block.
Tim and Tom didn't want to go in and we decided to book online for tomorrow.
We walked on to another Gaudi masterpiece, Casa Mila - aka La Pedrera or the quarry. The outside texture is uneven and resembles stone, although the fluid nature of the design suggests a welcoming aspect too.
This apartment building is still occupied and tourists can visit the roof terrace, attic and an apartment on the 7th floor - which I did. The others headed back to the apartment while I queued for 15-20 minutes. The terrace has very funky chimney and water tank designs that look like knights about to fight monsters. Great views as well, including the Sagrada Familia and the Mediterranean.
The attic contains an exhibition of designs for Gaudi's best known works, including the miniatures for the Sagrada Familia - during the Civil War the originals of these and his original plans were destroyed by the communists and someone painstakingly reconstructed them to allow the construction to continue.
The display described how Gaudi created his designs from the idea of nature - animal bones, dead trees, corn cobs, sea sponges. Very informative in simple, easily understood ways.
The apartment was quite spacious and held furniture and objects from the period of its construction - 1905-1910.
Back to the apartment, I was confronted by a lady and her companion sitting on the steps. She was drinking and it didn't seem to be the first for the day. By demonstration it was clear she wasn't happy with us walking around on the floor. She must live below us. I said I didn't understand and walked on. Not sure what we were expected to do as we are usually barefoot or in socks. Another neighbour of Asian origin with a world-weary expression was coming down the stairs to dispose of rubbish. Ana said that the señora had spent a couple of hours during the afternoon ranting and hurling racist abuse up the light well to this guy. She must have trouble with the world.
After a short rest I headed off to Starbucks wifi land to book tickets. After an hour of website issues it was clear that this wasn't going to be easy. I ran into Bruce so we tried another venue - same issue.
All six of us dined at Rossini in the Placa Reial. We had to eat downstairs. It was good Italian food and we were served by a very good waiter from Normandy. He had also lived in London and Quebec.
Bruce bought the boys - all three of them - some aerial sling shots that lit up. There was a contest to see how high each could go. Easy entertainment. Tom and Ben bought some for mates back home. The seller was an illegal immigrant from Pakistan who has been here for 2 years and 4 months. Once he reaches 3 years he can get a visa. Not sure how that works but as the gap closes you would be getting really anxious and more careful.
After helados it was off to bed.