Three

Our last full day in the Catalan capital and we put in some serious walking – if we don’t lose some weight after this trip there’ll be some blood shed I tell you! Today Gail planned a trip to the Palau de la Musica Catalya which is, according to the guide book “a real place of music, a Modernista celebration of tilework, sculpture and glorious stained glass” and a UNESCO World Heritage Building. In this case the building actually lived up to the plaudits! – A magnificent building (although “building” is too simple a word for this place). We took a guided tour but unfortunately weren’t allowed to take any photos inside so you’ll just have to imagine. Look it up on the internet - Palau de la Musica Catalya. Barcelona, for those who haven’t yet visited, is just a fantastic collection of amazing architecture – almost every building seems to be making a statement of sorts – some just scream at you! The city is so alive with people (many tourists like us) but has almost no graffiti – the trains and train stations are not only clean but SO efficient! There are no timetables as trains arrive every few minutes – oh to have something remotely like this in Sydney! Another reason not to live there eh? The afternoon was spent at Montjuic which is a hill overlooking the city and is home to a number of parklands and numerous museums art galleries etc. We were specifically going to visit the Jean Miro exhibition, catching the train then a furnicular before a brisk 10 minute walk. All worth while (and all, including the walk I guess, covered by our 2 day ticket to all sorts of transport). Pretty cool place - some very interesting work whcih could take some explaining if done by young students (ie show more effort etc) but ???? Again, no pics inside please but feel free to purchase something from the shop as you leave. Finally we finished off the day (OK, there's the night to come but that doesn't start till about 9pm) we walked to the Poble Espanyol - a recreation of various styles of Spanish buildings over the centuries. Original built for an exhibition in the 1920's it has remained and is quite an interesting experience. Tomorrow we head for Madrid, pick up our car and hopefully head off into the wilds of Castille and beyond. Not sure what interent connections I will have - hopefully better thasn here where I am perched on the toilet as I get a better (not good but better) signal here than in the main room. Ahhhh don't start me on internet connections!
 * BARCELONA – we came, we saw (what we could) and it didn’t conquer us! (bloody close call though!)**
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