We said goodbye to Nice and to France today. The airport is right on the beach, which seems like such a waste of prime real estate. But it makes for a lovely arrival or departure! The sea, the city, and the snowcapped Alps were all visible from our plane window as we took off. What a fabulous goodbye from a lovely country.
We arrived in Barcelona and found a new challenge – neither one of us speaks the language. Here they speak Catalan, which seems like a blend between Spanish and French. All signage is in Catalan, and maybe followed by English and then Spanish.
When we arrived at our hotel we were excited to see a shower head mounted to the wall—a simple pleasure missing from all of our hotels so far. Europeans favor a hand held shower head, so you have to use one hand to hold the shower head and one hand to wash or rinse. It is a bit of a challenge.
Today was supposed to be our relaxing day. Whoops. We started easy, having a super yummy meal in a spot filled with locals on their break. A few train connections later and we were blown away by La Sagrada Familia, a basilica designed by Gaudi. I’m going to take a bit of time to describe it because we really loved it and it is so different from any other cathedral we have seen. It was begun in 1883 and is not expected to be completed until somewhere between 2020 and 2040. In an era when building quickly and efficiently is the standard it is refreshing to see the patience required to finish such an ambitious project. We read that Gaudi intended that art should serve the church, so every detail is thoughtful and unique.
The outside alone is impressive, even with all the sky cranes and various scaffolding present. It has a gothic design, and some parts of the building look like they are quite old. Some of them appear to be melting or decaying. There are 7 towers already built with 11 more planned. The Nativity Façade depicts the birth story and includes a beautiful green tree and traditional style sculptures. The other side of the church displays the Passion Façade. Its sculptures are very nontraditional, with powerful imagery and palpable despair.
 |
The Nativity Facade (note the sky cranes!) |
 |
One of the scenes in the Passion Facade (the plaque underneath says Matthew 27:19) |
 |
The Passion Facade (the left side is covered with scaffolding) |
 |
The main doors under the Passion Facade containing the words of all four Gospels |
Once inside, everything changes. We read that it is supposed to be like a forest, so we were expecting something like the green tree we saw outside or the hundred acre wood. Instead, it is like being in a forest. The pillars are tree trunks and the ceiling is the canopy above. The stonework inside is almost all near-white, giving it a luminous quality. Furthermore, the sun casts its rays through the extensive stained glass onto the white palette inside the church, splashing color everywhere. Much of the stained glass is not yet installed, but the effect is already impressive. Visual stimulation aside, it was refreshing to see a cathedral that evoked a sense of hope and light, instead of the somber darkness of the others we have visited.
 |
Light from the stained glass shining on the pillars |
 |
View of the canopy ceiling |
 |
The main altar, you can see some stained glass is not installed |
 |
Beth is admiring the huge pipes! |
 |
The back of the church, awaiting stained glass. The doors at the bottom will say "Our Father" in all the world's languages when completed. |
 |
This staircase wrapped around an elevator ascending one of the towers |
Next we headed over to La Rambla, a well-known pedestrian thoroughfare of Barcelona and home to the largest produce market in Europe. It was full of vendors selling their wares: produce, cheese, and meat. Check out the pictures to get a taste of what we saw.
 |
Beth being a tree on La Rambla |
 |
It's so hard to find a butcher nowadays that leaves your goat's eyes in its head :) |
 |
Jamon Iberico, extremely popular and yummy |
 |
All sorts of fruits and veggies we have never seen before! |
 |
Don't you just hate it when you're riding horse sidesaddle while holding a ship above your head and your shirt falls off? |
 |
Little known fact: Barcelona produces all of the world's pigeons |
Our next adventure was to find churros y chocolate; a favorite treat of Beth’s on her first trip to Spain in high school. A churro is basically an oblong donut dusted in sugar that you drown in the accompanying vat of thick milk chocolate. Satisfied regret and malaise soon follows.
Then our night took an unexpected turn. We were on our way back to the hotel to rest and clean up in preparation for tapas when we stumbled across tickets to a futbol match between Barcelona and Paris. It was a very important match, and people everywhere were wearing jerseys in anticipation. This was something we’d wanted to do but when we checked several weeks ago no matches were planned. To make a long story short, our good friend Ross convinced us that we were crazy not to seize this opportunity.
Surrounded by 100,000+ frenzied Spaniards and a few lonely Frenchman, we cheered on the home team, doing our best to join the Catalan chants. When things didn’t go Barca’s way, we yelled at the refs and received approving looks from our neighbors. When Barca scored, we shared high fives and hugs while jumping around like kids. It was such a fun opportunity to experience this part of their culture. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, which Barca needed to advance.
 |
A panoramic view of the stadium...and happy Beth |
 |
Game On! |
 |
What a night! |
After the game, we went back to our original plan and hunted down some tapas bars. We found two that had local crowds and dove in. We enjoyed typical dishes, like patatas bravas and jamon iberico. While we were in Phoenix we met a man from Madrid who told us that our favorite Spanish wine, Rioja, is not the best that Spain has to offer, so we tried two new types of Spanish wines (Ribera del Deuro—not our favorite, but still good—and a Merlot from Los Penedes which we liked very much).
We left the packed restaurant at 1:00 AM and returned to our hotel after our “relaxing” day.