Day 14 ~ Barcelona

The "jungle"

The pedestrian walk in front of our hotel - La Rambla

Inside Gaudi's cathedral - Sagrada Familia

Amazing stained glass inside that makes color dance on the floors and ceilings

At a cafe inside the Music Palace

A square where Woody Allen filmed one of his movies. The orange flowers were just falling from the sky, truly magical. The picture doesn't capture it very well.

Beautiful apartment window

Barcelona is beautiful and very clean - especially compared to Rome. It is full of life and art. The street outside our hotel is called La Rambla, and that's exactly what people do - ramble. There are restaurants and shops all the way down to the pier. We spent our first day with a guide getting a architectural tour. Barcelona chose to keep whatever buildings were still standing and incorporate modern life around it. Our guide called it recycling. The effect is that you can have a Roman wall from the 4th century connected to a 16th century wall, which a 20th century apartment building uses as it's foundation. The artist, architect Gaudi has a huge influence in the city. From the street lamps, to family homes - the dragons stomach & the jellyfish, to the amazingly bizarre and breathtaking Sagrada Familia! This man was a brilliant savant, who clearly had vision beyond his time. We finished our tour with traditional Spanish Tapas at a restaurant nicknamed the jungle. There were vines hanging from the ceiling.