Catching Up

We have gotten through all of Rome where everything was so ancient and beautiful to the extent of being incomprehensible. And after a traumatic day of buses, trains, planes, and more buses (which will probably deserve its own blog post at some point) we are in Paris. But we have not even finished talking about Spain on this little blog (stealing internet by sitting on the stairs of our hostel in Rome made for slow going) so with Allison's lovely post to accompany it here is a brief recap:

The Cathedral Barcelona – the first time we tried to enter the beautiful building we were turned away for not being dressed modestly enough so we spent the morning wandering the streets around it. This very old part of the Barri Gotic was just minutes from our hostel so after a couple of hours of wandering we stopped at our hostel to change and were allowed into the Cathedral.

the lovely inner courtyard

Inside statues of saints sit in niches in the walls – the Bishop’s seat is in the front

A tiny elevator at the side took us up to the roof of the Cathedral to a beautiful view of the Barri Gotic and its surroundings.

A crazy and beautiful apartment by Gaudi in the ‘aristocratic’ area of Barcelona. The apartment was much in the style of the Sagrada Familia with lots of mosaic and everything round and curved.
.

Allison and I visited Montserrate a monastary built into a mountain. There were beautiful views and lots of tiny hermitages

Our last day we visited the huge market on La Rambla, the Boqueria where we managed to survive the crowds and get fruits and vegetables to make lunch with. Pasta with tomato sauce with fresh cherry tomatoes in it, sautéed asparagus and mushrooms and a salad with blackberries raspberries and strawberries walnuts pecans and feta cheese left us very full and happy until a late last dinner with Melina left us even fuller and happier.