Hola de Barcelona!

Michael and I on the tour bus!

I know you've all been anxiously waiting so here goes.  We arrived last Friday afternoon, it took about 3 hours for us to unload, get our bags and get out of the airport.  Then it took another 30-45 minutes to get a taxi.  We finally made it to the apartment we were staying in while waiting for the guy with the key, realized we had left our camera in the taxi.  We got inside, spent about an hour on the phone with the taxi company to no avail, took a small nap, I got in the shower to warm up, and we went out for the evening.  It was colder than I thought and we couldn't figure out how to turn the heat on until later.  I warmed up, we bought a new camera, and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Yeah Hard Rock!  I love that place.  What I don't love right now is how bad the dollar is doing.  The Euro is much stronger right now (1 Euro = $1.60), so we are paying 1 1/2 times more for everything.  Other than that, prices are pretty equal.

On Saturday and Sunday, we bought a pass to a hop-on-hop-off tour bus (the double decker kind) and toured around the city that way.  A great way to go.  Gave us a good feel for the city, and where the highlights were.  Well here are a few photos from our first few days in Spain!

Us eating at Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona!

The beach boardwalk at Port Olimpic, and two old men enjoying the sun.  hehe

Barcelona's pride and joy, La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family)

This is an interesting building.  One entrance is all gothic style, very similar to other cathedrals, but much more elaborate, designed by Gaudi.  The other entrance was built recently by a different architect and very modern and blocky.  It's quite bizarre, if you ask me.  The towers and very tall and ornate, as you can see.  Eventually there will be twelve towers for the disciples of Christ and a taller one for him.  It still isn't finished and has been under construction for over 100 years.

MNAC: el Museu Nacional de Arte Catalunya

This houses the art museum, but even though we went inside, they closed about 20 minutes later, so we didn't buy a ticket.  Maybe another day.

La Casa Mila or La Padrera

This was an apartment building built by Gaudi, one of Barcelona's most famous architects.  I has a courtyard in the middle, so all the room have natural lighting.  The curves of the building are supposed to imitate the "waves of the Mediterranean." Even the roof of this building is amazing, maybe even more interesting than the inside.

Okay, here a glimpse of our first two days.  I'll do more later, but I'm burning daylight trying to get this all done. So much to see, so little time! The internet is a little different here (and my computer keeps switching from English to Spanish!), and I've had some troubles.  But eventually, this will get done!

Later.