Barcelona, Spain

Hola! So, since we had airplane issue we ended up missing a day in Barcelona...But we were really happy that we still had part of Sunday to spend there before we hopped on our cruise ship.

We spent our time in Barcelona on a bike tour. If you ever go to Europe, check to see if Fat Tire Bike Tours is in the area you are going, because they give THE best tours in Europe. No joke. Feel free to take a gander at their site here.

Here we are standing among the other bikers listening to our tour guide give us a brief, relevant history lesson.

One of our stops on the tour was at this medieval courtyard, called the Plaza del Rei. This is supposedly where Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus after he discovered America.

Below is the Arc de Triomf...I used to think the one in Paris was unique, but apparently a plethora of cities have their own arch.

Later we ventured into a lovely park. It reminded me of the parks we biked through in London, but this one was very tropical. In the park is this impressive fountain...

Below is the view from within the fountain. You can see out into the tropical park...

This is one of the only existing bull fighting areas that is still housing bull fights. Looks like bull fights may not go on much longer, though...

We stopped at "La Catedral," a Spanish church where locals dance "La Sardana" on Sundays in the square. I was glad we happened to be there on a Sunday to watch the dancing. There were maybe half a dozen of these circles and people would drop their sheesh and join often. I kept taking pictures of this, the closest circle to us, as it kept expanding. This is one of the later pictures I took, when it was its largest.

No Barcelona city tour would be complete without seeing its landmark, the famous Sagrada Familia built by one of my favorite architects, Gaudi. It is crazy how this church has been under construction for over 100 years, and probably will continue to be under construction for a very long time. I had just studied this in my art history class last semester, so it was fun to see in person.

All of the carving work, I believe, they said was done by Gaudi himself.

Below is a photo of the back...which is not done by Gaudi. It is clearly in a very different style, but impressive nonetheless.

Our last stop was the beach for lunch! Kyncade swam in the Mediterranean--it was a lovely temperature--and then paused for a seafood salad.

After the tour we hopped onto our cruise ship and sailed away...

Coming next: Monaco and Nice, France!