Segrada Familia

Segrada Familia by day. This Roman Catholic basilica puts you in a state of awe. The completed towers look unearthly. As a kid making castles out of wet sand, dripping from your fingers, letting each drop of water and sand pile onto the previous drop, you were creating Gaudi´s blueprint. The basilica has been under construction for over 100 years and only has 8 of its planned 18 towers. It is an site to behold. At night it takes on an even more impressive auora.

As I had mentioned earlier, Las Ramblas is a street, an very interesting street. Populated by tourists and street vendors, you begin on the Mediterranean and end in the center of Barcelona. Mime statues pleasing the crowd can be witnessed at every turn; careful, when you reach to put a coin in the bucket, they might break their stone stance and silence. Artists doing cartoon portrait sketches, airbrush artists and painters mimicing the masters can be seen. It is said that every day brings a something new to the street. If you are into shopping, have no fear, you will find whatever you desire. Do you smell that? I don´t know what it is, but man it smells good. Hungry? foods of all kinds, from pitas and kabobs to McDonalds, can be found. McDonalds in Europe in comparison to the U.S. have proven to be some of the nicest establishments -- always with a WC. Just want to fit in as a tourist? Every day of the week you will find a crowd of people wandering the ins and outs of this place.

This is just about it for Barcelona, we are leaving in a few hours for Portugal. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Two last pics, one of the Barcelona Arc de Triomf -- the buildings and architecture of Barcelona have no end. The second is Monserrat. North of Barcelona about 30 miles, this old monestary was worth the trip. It is a serene place among the rocky mountians of the Pryenees.