The alarm woke us up from a sound sleep. Hurry, Hurry. The hotel breakfast was good - loved the fresh oranges from Valencia, fresh croissants, good coffee - just like home. We all got our Metra passes and started the two block walk to the Metra (subway). There are 18 in our group. We walked DOWN the many steps and had 4 minutes until the next train. We boarded the train which was fairly crowded for a Sunday morning and rode until the fourth stop. We popped UP at the Museu D’Historia De Catalonia (History of Catalonia. Barcelona is the capitol). Heard a one hour lecture about the history Catalonia and another hour about Gaudi —the famous architect who made Barcelona famous! The most unusual site at the museum was when the elevator door open and 8 bridesmaids who had on black tee shirts that said something about the bride, followed by the bride who had on a white tee shirt, tiara, and was clutching a life size inflated bridegroom. Do you think that that was a bachelorette party? Looked at the museum for a while and then had lunch. Chuck had octopus Galician style and I had melon and hamon (Spanish ham). We shared. At 2:30 we met the bus for a panoramic tour of the area including the high hill where some of the 1992 Olympic events were held. We could see the harbor with cruise ships. The world’s largest cruise shipped was docked there. Also saw the iconic statue of Christopher Columbus. Tonight the Olympic stadium will host a Metallica concert. After leaving the hill, we crossed town to Park Guell. We walked around the park with a guide —lots of UP and DOWN on a very hilly site. The park was designed by Gaudi and full of surprises. Returned to the hotel for happy hour and a delightful hour with a Catalonia couple (He worked for Hewlett-Packard before starting his own business and she is a Cordon Bleu trained check who has a cooking school for Ex-Pats). The group asked them all kinds of questions—personal life style, political, national health care, etc. It was a very interesting time.
No comments:
Post a Comment