Chapter 9: Barcelona

On June 28, we left the Celebrity Summit for our final tour, with bags loaded onto the bus, of our final city. For several hours, we were entranced with the distinctive architechure of Barcelona's pride and joy: Gaudi, which is displayed all over the city.

The Templo de la Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882, and is publicly funded by an admission charge paid by millions of people per year. In 1883, Gaudi was brought in to take over the work, which he did until he died in 1926. He committed the project to the hands of God and the work of the people. Contruction still continues. You can easily tell the newer sections from the older ones by the color of the stone. The older stone is darker.
Each door of the temple is dedicated to a different theme. This entrance reflects the birth of Christ, and is extremely ornate.
This section is over the entrance to the rear, and the style is much more modern, depicting the Crucifixion.

Right around a corner in the city is yet another example of the buried Roman history throughout the regions we visited, literally. Roman gravesites stand near a square featuring a Gothic church and a building decorated by Picasso.
The Gothic church has amazingly intricate woodworking inside. It invokes reverence, awe, and fear.

This is the building decorated by Picasso, across the square from the Gothic church.

Here is the guest house of the royal family, to which Christopher Columus returned in 1493 after his famous voyage. He brought Native Americans with him; carriers of syphilis who were unaffected by the disease. From this center, syphilis spread through the courtiers and eventually throughout Europe. Just a bit of cheerful history for you.

Our hotel was near the airport and our guide dropped us there with our bags. Due to our use of frequent flier miles (have I mentioned this before?) we could not fly on a weekend, so the rest of our party left early the next morning, but we were stuck for another day. Hard to be mad about being stuck in Barcelona (Barthelona, if you pronounce it according to Castillian Spanish), but we were ready to be home.


I was enchanted with the paella (a seafood, vegetable, and rice dish flavored with saffron), and had it twice in two days. The first stop was this restaurant, recommended by our guide. It was delicious food, and the sangria was out of this world. However, I was a bit disturbed by the leg just hanging out in the middle of the restaurant over the serving station.

We spent our time learning the public transportation system to get downtown (shuttle to airport, train to station, metro to downtown, legs from there on out), and seeing what we could see.

Franz was especially taken with the harbor.

I was especially taken with the paella. Here we are at the end of our last day in Barcelona, enjoying some paella and sangria along the pedestrian walkway of Las Ramblas, watching street performers, and resting our weary feet. We were able to brush up on our Spanish, learn some of the local dialect, and get used to living without a tour guide once again.

Early on the morning of the 30th, we took a shuttle to the airport, called the girls and told them "Good Night" (it was 9:00 PM the day before in Phoenix) and began our adventure of flying home. We flew Air France at 6:55 AM to Paris and from there to Detriot, where we waited in a lounge for most of the day before heading home. It was really nice to use our points to upgrade to business class for our return travel. Waiting in that lounge in Detroit was the hardest part of the trip, ready as we were to get home. We arrived in Phoenix at 8:30 PM Monday night, waited 45 minutes for our bags, and headed home with Lana and the girls to meet up with Mom and have a late night gift exchange and chat session.

So, that's it. No Chapter 10 to this story. We are super glad to be back, and are planning our next trip a little closer to home (the MidWest) and bringing the girls with us. We may see some of you then (3rd week of July, I think), and some of you we'll have to see later. Anyway, thanks for allowing me to share. I have over 700 pictures of our trip and I know you're convinced I posted all of them, but I didn't; I held back at least 23! It was so much easier for me to post in chapters and easier for you to skip over that way, too! For now, the most adventure we're facing on a daily basis is a trip to swimming class for the girls and the ups and downs of potty training a strong-willed, independent 3-year-old. And that's enough for now.