Well I made it to Spain and back and all without getting pick-pocketed. We had a good time in Spain. My flight went into Girona which is a small city about an hour and twenty minute train ride from Barcelona. We spent the first day there in Girona and saw the "Temps de la Flora" which was a big flower art festival thing. They had displays all over the city of flowers and arrangements and some really unique stuff. It was fun just walking around in the old town seeing all of that. We walked through a bunch of narrow alleys that wound around with little shows and alcoves here and there.
We spent our second day in Barcelona itself. I think we hit all the big sites there. We first walked down the "Ramblas" which is just a big tourist trap type of street. There are lots of shops and street performers and all kinds of things going on there. Apparently this is the place for the pickpockets too. They love to pick on the gawking crowds. The Ramblas goes all the way down to the harbor where there is a Columbus monument. From there we hiked up this hill to Monjuic Castle. This was built as a military base fairly recently to keep Barcelona under control. It gives a good view of the city all around. From there we walked down through the Olympic area and finally to the metro where we caught a train out to see the football (soccer) stadium. They wanted 17 Euros to go in and tour the stadium so we skipped that and rode the train over to the Sangrid Familia which is this really ornate unfinished church. They've been working on it for the past 80 years or so off and on and the guy that designed it is actually dead now. The amazing thing is that it's supposed to take another 50 years to complete! We snapped some pictures and then made our way over to the Cathedral and then back to the place we were staying in Girona. This morning we got up about 8 and caught our flight back to Bristol and made it back sage and sound. The weather was real nice over in Spain and coming back to Bristol was kind of a jolt back to cold weather. Even the pilot made some comment about not being sure why we wanted to leave Girona for Bristol. All in all it was a good trip. Oh one funny thing was that I kind of got a lot of trouble from the customs agent coming into Bristol. He asked me all about why I was here, what I was doing, my degree, who I was staying with, what do they do, how much money do I have, do I have a ticket back, etc. For a minute I was afraid they weren't going to let me back in. Anyways I'm safe and sound back here in Bristol and ready for bed. Here are a few pictures. You can see the rest in my Picasa album with the link from my last post. Enjoy!
Girona from the river with a flower thing
The Girona Cathedral with some flower artwork on the stairs. Notice the scaffolding? I think every church we saw in Spain had scaffolding on it or in it somewhere.
In the Olympic Stadium
The famous Sangrid Familia, someday they'll finish
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