Barcelona

Well we´ve walked miles and miles.  Each day we head out with a plan to do something different.  We´ve been to the Port, we´ve taken a couple of different On Off Bus Tours and had a good look around.  Visited the Casa Botilla, a house that Gaudi built for his parton and the Sagrada Familia, also by Gaudi - still being built for another 14 years.  Amazing how somebody´s brain conceives things then can put them into action.  All the Turista buses promote Gaudi.  Had a bit of a meltdown this morning at Sagrada Familia though.  Thought we were going up in a lift to view the next level of the Cathedral, but instead we were taken 2\3 the way up one of the spires and had to then walk up a winding 1 metre wide staircase to a small viewing platform, then descend a similar staricase to find the lift down.  I was a bit of a mess and my legs are still jelly on any stairs and still a bit shaky inside.  Luckily the other 3 were there to support the claustrophobic, vertigo sufferer!!  Spent some time at the gallery of comtemporary art, where they had a permanent visual exhibition of Joan Mori(?)´s art and scultpure and an visual and aural exhibition about music - a bit beyond my understanding from an art perspective, but enjoyable all the same.  Rode the cable car from the Port to the hills behind one area of the city, then sat on their terrace for a while, having a cool drink, checking out the views from a different angle.  Last night Dominique & Mark & I sat for an hour drinking champagne on our roof top terrace, while we waited for Lucas to come back from L´Estartit, so we could go for dinner.  Went to a quite formal place near our apartment, but the boys were joking about "Manuel" who was serving us, because he leant his body against each of us as he served us.  Also he tried the old "fill up the used water bottle and bring it to the table and pretend that I´m just opening it" trick.  This of course didn´t work because we had ordered "water, wizz gas" por favor!!!!  Great dinner though. The boys had clams in spinach sauce entrees, which would have done for mains, Dominique and I had cod, that had been salted to preserve it and washed repeatedly to get rid of the salt, to cook it for us.  They needed to wash it out a few more times, but yummy.  Mark had Lamb Shank and Lucas (can´t remember).  We were so full then "Manuel " asked the boys if they would like traditional Spanish after dinner drink.  They of course said yes, Mark choosing sweet and Lucas dry.  They were both like rocket fuel - Mark saying it was nice, once you got used to it.  Lucas waited till "Manuel" and his mate turned their backs and poured his into a nearly empty glass of red.  We got out of there pretty fast!
I´ll try some pics next
G xxx