Day 8 France ---> Barcelona Spain 6/30/11
For me, the train was not that
comfortable. My height was about the maximum allowed in the couchette bed, so I
slept fitfully in doses. A lot of our group members had a great sleep, enjoying
the sway of the train throughout the night. We were all ready to get off the
train at Perpignon, France by 7:00 am. It arrived on time at 7:24 am. We got
the bags off in good fashion and then got on a bus to head to the Spanish
border. Approximately a half hour later, we were across.
We stopped at a rest stop for
breakfast, which was a croissant, orange juice (freshly squeezed in front of
our eyes) and either coffee or hot chocolate. People could buy more if they
wanted to. We got back on the bus and went another 2-3 hours to Barcelona. The
group alternately dozed or looked out the window as we went.
Chris described briefly the
Catalonia region as we were passing through it. He said that each Spanish region kept a strong individual
identity which made it hard to have a strong central government. We got to the
hotel in Barcelona, the Catalonia Aragon.
We stowed our luggage and bags
in the luggage room and went on a bus tour with our local guide Tony (Antonio).
He took us to Park Guell and gave us a brief history.
Views from Park Guell
Architecture from Park Guell
More Park Guell
•
A developer wanted to make it a place where rich people
lived, combining the house with nature's natural surroundings. It was at the
top of a hill that overlooked Barcelona and the sea. Gaudi helped design the
park. Unfortunately, no one wanted to move up there, as it was a long way to
town. There were also enough anarchists around that there would be an
occasional uprising against the rich, so the rich didn't want to be where
the mob could get all of them.
•
Antoni Gaudi
designed Park Guell in a modernistic way. Which means the use of nature,
statues and such to make buildings blend in with nature.
•
It had its own
water catching system, which was necessary for the long hot days and the rain
which didn't happen too often during the summer.
Then we took the bus down to
Barcelona's most famous landmark, the Sagrada Familia. Things had not changed
too much for me since I was there seven years ago. There were still cranes and
work was being done on it. Tony said that artist from around the world were
coming in to work on it, making it a truly world church. In fact, he gave an
example of an oriental artist coming and changing the carvings on the church a
little, giving the kids more of a slanted eye look. The citizens didn't like
it, but the church made their point that the church was an ever changing thing
and was meant to be a world church for God.
La Sagrada Familia Betsy at the Sagrada Familia
After pictures and buying some
stuff, we got on the bus and saw things like where the Barcelona Olympics site
was, famous residents in the city, and other interesting facts about the city.
Unfortunately, a lot of us took little naps with the train trip the night
before as well as the warm weather taking its toll on us.
We said our good byes to Tony
and had a couple of hours to ourselves at Las Ramblas. We ate and did some
shopping until 4:00 pm, then we took the subway back to our hotel and got in
our rooms. We rested and relaxed and got cleaned up until our supper meal,
which was at 8:30 pm. We had a buffet of spaghetti and meat (perhaps chicken)
with sauce. Fish and potatoes could also have been had. Dessert was a type of
tiramisu and a lemon type of pudding.(Lemon chiffon?)
Afterward, we went back to Las
Ramblas and did some more sight seeing and shopping for an hour. We did pretty
good, even getting some ice cream at the store. We got to bed at around
midnight preparing for our last day with the other groups tomorrow.
€100
= $153.79 (3 euro commission)
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