We settled into our first hotel this afternoon. I was exhausted and took a nap while Bob walked to the Sagrada Familia. This is the famous, and yet unfinished, church designed in part by the eccentric artist, Gaudi. The church was commissioned in 1882 and Gaudi took over the design in 1883. He worked on the church until his death in 1926. Since that time, other architects have worked on the project, trying to continue his design plans. It's still not finished and construction crews are still working on it. We opened the window in our hotel room and realized the church was directly in front of our room. Before dinner, Bob took me for a walk around this very peculiar looking building. I can't really say it's beautiful, or even pretty. I CAN say it's very creative, unique, and eye-catching! You can find it on Google if you're interested in seeing a very odd building.
Yesterday, before we left the ship we walked through the La Rambla section of Barcelona. It is a wide, very crowded pedestrian walkway about two miles long that is filled with hundreds of small shops. Really surprised by how many young adults are here. There's thousands of young people strolling the streets. We were warned by MANY crew aboard the ship NOT to wear any jewelry, watches, or phones. They told us to wear old clothing and try not to carry anything valuable. One expert speaker even told us to keep our money in our underwear (we didn't follow this advice)! Evidently, the pickpockets on this pedestrian street are among the best in the world and we were told they WOULD rob us if they spotted anything on us or we looked like wealthy Americans. I carried NOTHING with me and Bob carried our money and ID hidden under his shirt. Luckily, we escaped without being mugged. Guess we didn't look very wealthy!
It is quite warm in our room. Now I remember that in many European hotels they don't turn on the A/C until summer. We opened the window but it's still quite warm. May be interesting trying to sleep tonight. Tomorrow we're on our way to Pamplona, Spain where they have the annual running with the bulls. Luckily, this event will NOT be happening while we're there. Bob actually participated in this crazy event when he was young (of course. Just one of his many wild adventures). We're eventually headed for the coast then up to France.
