A Day touring Barcelona

Sunday March 8, 2009 Last Day in Barcelona Spain
By 9 AM today we had walked to the Placa Catalunya and purchased one day tickets for the Barcelona City Bus Tour. It has 20 hop on hop off stops and an English speaking audio guide for us to listen to as we tour the city. As we have been using the Metro to get around this will give us a much better sense of having seen the city. We elected to go right to the top of the open air section of the bus where we could snap pictures to our hearts delight. We saw the Sagrada Familia and the Gaudi Park which we had visited yesterday…. Up the hills we went to where the 1929 Worlds Fair and the 1992 Olympic’s were held. As we came back down into the city we got off at the Cathedral as it was now noon and the twelve o’clock mass was just starting. I was disappointed in the Cathedral as it is under some reconstruction and was loaded with people milling around. The mass is broadcast on television screens scattered throughout the church. This did help us follow the Mass better but it was just not the same. Also many beggars as you went into the church. When we came out they had a band set up and were starting to party on the square in front of the church. We stopped at Starbucks for a much needed WC and coffee break…… walked back to where we could pick up our bus again and this time decided to ride the route once more but doing it downstairs and listening better to the audio guide. A closer look at the entire route was much appreciated by us both… a better look at the port of Barcelona (many cruise ships were docked) and we saw the Monument in honor of Columbus (his ship sailed back to Barcelona when he returned from the New World) Supposedly the Indians he had with him were baptized in the Cathedral where we went to Mass. After spending almost 8 hours out on the town we are now back at our hostel, deleting unnecessary pictures, typing journals and skyping our families. Tomorrow morning we leave for Toulouse France on the bus and not sure about the internet so until we again find the net….. Goodby from Spain. Oh yes, below this blog is a group of pictures from Barcelona... hope that you enjoy them ... also check Marthas blog as she has lots more pictures and a great blog to read on this city.