Barcelona (part 1)

Saturday April 27th in the late afternoon we arrived in Barcelona.  We had some trouble finding our hotel, parking our car, and even checking in.  So we lost some sight-seeing time due to that.  But once we got all of that figured out, we headed out even though it was raining.

(This was the view from our hotel)

Barcelona is famous for some unique buildings too.  Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect, has several buildings around Barcelona.  Dad, Paul, Glenn and I walked to a couple of them, but because of the rain and the traveling, Glenn wasn't in much of a mood for sight-seeing in the cold.  So Paul volunteered to go back to the hotel with Glenn and my Dad and I continued to walk around the city.  

Casa Mila

Casa Batllo

And we saw some other beautiful buildings and work all around the city.

Dad and I walked to a large plaza--we were so amazed at how large it was.  We just don't see those in the US.  And of course there were many pigeons too.

 And I had to take a picture of the giant thermometer.  It was pretty chilly! 

(10 degrees Celsius is 50 degrees Fahrenheit...brr!)

Then we walked into the old city.  Dad walked around first and saw the cathedral--I joined him after watching some street performers. : D

Such amazing attention to detail!

These guys were pretty good, actually.  This last guy was spinning and spinning and spinning!  He even took off his shirt while he was spinning.  I tried to get a video of it, but my battery was dying...but here's one second of it. :D

I then joined Dad inside the cathedral.  A man was singing inside and it was filling the huge cavity so well-it really made it beautiful inside.  I tried getting a video, but the battery gave out completely that time. :S

We walked back around the cathedral...

We walked down to another plaza--that's what you do in Spain--and saw some more beautiful buildings.

 Dad and I saw some interesting sculptures on our way to the wharf.  

We didn't stay long down there--with the chilly weather and being near the water, it was too much for us.  Plus we hadn't eaten much.  So we walked back to the hotel--stopping by to get some dinner on the way.  We got some bread with tomatoes on it, which the waiter said was classic in this region.  It was pretty good.  And we also got some hot chocolate and churros--which is another classic Spanish treat--and took some back to the hotel to share with the boys.  It felt so good to have something warm!