Barcelona, Spain 11-20-10

An old building downtown, a couple of blocks from our hotel. 

 This is a government building that houses the Mayor's office.

We took a 4 hour bicycle tour of Barcelona.

This is an opera house in the downtown area that is said to have perfect acoustics.

Every city in Europe seems to have an Arc de Triomf.

 A quick stop at Parc De La Ciutadella for a break and some information from our tour guide.

This is an historical building in the park.

Barcelona is a contrast between the new and the old.

 This is the church known as the Gaudi Cathedral.

 And as you can see, this is why we have the word "gaudy" in our lexicon.

 Barcelona is a seaside town with some of the best beaches in Europe.

Lynda listens to our tour guide on a brief stop at the beach.

Here we are on the return trip from out tour.

 It's not easy taking pictures from a moving bicycle.

One of the modern buildings at the beach area. 

Our tour guide, Jordan, with Christy, who runs the bicycle shop.  It was cold and rainy but he wore sandals, as he is from Australia and he never wore shoes there.

Our tour guide took us to a local restaurant for lunch.

This is a statute of Christopher Columbus at the start of La Rambla.

And where is Columbus pointing?  To the new world, of course.  This is the port he sailed from.

Standing at the base of the Columbus statute.

Lynda, back on La Rambla shopping for a scarf.

La Rambla during the day.

The ever-present street performers.

A quick stop at Placa Reial on the way back to the hotel.

Barcelona, Spain 11-19-10

La Rambla!  At night!  This is the main pedestrian avenue through downtown Barcelona.

Of course, anytime you walk La Rambla, you encounter street performers, who stand like statutes until someone pays them to act.

There are flower shops everywhere. 

This is the entrance to the big food market just off La Rambla. 

I had to put this in for the grandchildren, look at all that candy and chocolate! 

The only thing better than those lollipops would be.... 

these!!!! 

 They have all the fresh fruit and vegetables you can imagine.

They weren't too busy as we got there at closing time. 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Barri Gotic area for shopping.

Sitges, Spain 11-19-10

After Montserat, we took a tour of Sitges (the "t" is silent).  Lynda Lou took a quick nap on the way there.

 A lot of the houses in the downtown area look like this.

Some of the houses have signs with names.  This one has a song printed next to the door.

This is a statute of a famous town doctor who once served as the mayor.

 The town is a seaport with fishing and tourism as its main industries.

 An old cannon overlooking the seawall.

 We stopped for dinner and had tapas.  Tapas are h'orderves and you eat enough of them to get full.

 Chowing down with some people we met on our tour.

Lynda checks out the shopping on the way back to the bus.

Montserrat, Spain 11-19-10

While in Barcelona, we decided to visit Montserrat, which is the mountain in this photograph.  It houses a 1,000 year old benedictine monastery.

Here we are, waiting to get on the train to take us up the mountain.

I was taking pictures out of the train window.....

like this one.

This is the monastery, with the surrounding town.

We decided to hike up to the top of the mountain.  There were three trails, we took the highest.

The mountain is famous for its rock formations, which all have names and some look like animals or people.

You can see the odd formations and how you can imagine what they look like.

Taking a momentary break, about half way up.

I found this abandoned church on the way up.

 A view from close to the top.

 I finally made it to the top and the view was breath-taking.

This is the Pyrenees mountains, which separate Spain from France. 

At the top, there was a group of Spanish students hiking the mountain.

Lynda Lou was lagging a little behind, but finally made it to the top.

 At the top with the mountains in the background.

 As you can imagine, at the top of a mountain, the wind was blowing really hard.

On the way back down, testing my new remote control for the camera.

Back to the center of town and a quick look into the church.

The inside of the church at the abbey.