Day 15 - Blogabond

We began the day with a ramble down the Ramblas of Barcelona. This wide, tree-filled, walkway is the heart of Barcelona. It starts at a large central plaza and goes all the way to the water over about 2 miles. Again it appeared as though everyone was out and about. Mark passed by about 3 “statues” before he realized they would move occasionally. These street artists lined the entire Ramblas. They were a big jump above the tin men or statue of liberty you may see in the US. Just as we were getting used to the buskers, we came upon the blocks of pet sales. Just about any animal that would fit into a small cage, excluding cats and dogs, were for sale. Chipmunks, squirrels, tortoises, frogs, toads, birds, snakes, mice, prairie dogs, hedgehogs, were among a few of the animals in cages. Just off the Ramblas we found the best, most colorful market we had ever seen. Every part of the cow, sheep, or pig was on display for your dinner. There were whole booths dedicated to spices, every fruit and nut you could think of, and the hams…I could go on forever. We grabbed a quick snack and continued on to the waterfront.

Next stop was a sidewalk café near the Cathedral of Barcelona. We needed a little drink before we could do any further site-seeing. The cathedral was amazing. Even the kids thought it was a pretty cool church, especially the view from the roof and the geese in the courtyard. Not the typical church visit. All the excitement tired the boys out so we dropped them at the hotel and headed to the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Church which was designed by Gaudi. He spent almost 40 years of his life working on it and left very detailed instructions for it’s completion in 1926 upon his death. It is still being constructed today and won’t be completed for another 50 years. It currently has 8 tower cranes on this one block project. It is truly an amazing architectural, artistic, and engineering wonder. After walking past a couple of his other projects, we went to gather the kids for dinner.

We found very busy and lively Tapas restaurant and ordered a nice big pitcher of sangria. John finally found an alcoholic drink he liked. (He is legal in Europe). After the second pitcher, he was even a little goofy so we took him home and put him to bed before we had to carry him home.

written by

pscossette on July 2, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain

from the travel blog: The Cossette Family Sabbatical

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