Katie & Kylie's Travels

After breakfast this morning we started our tour of Barcelona which included such sights as: Montjuic, the Olympic Stadium, the Waterfront area of Barcelona, the Arch de Triomphe of Barcelona and the National Palace.

After our city tour we watched a leather demonstration before taking a walking tour of the city with our tour guide Josh. Josh took us to see the Placa de Catalunya, the Cathderal, Palaca de Ray, Temple of Augustus and St. Philipe Nero. The amount of history in this place is truely amazing!

After finishing our walking tour we were able to explore the city ourselves and we headed down Las Ramblas which stretches from Placa de Catalunya to Monument a Colom and is a 1.2 Km walkway through the very heart of the city centre. Here you are able to see all sorts of stalls, restaurants, bars and street performers along with the many thousands of people on the promenade. It is a very weird and wonderful place.

After strolling down Las Ramblas we stopped for a quick bite of very late lunch before returning to the hotel as Katie was feeling a little unwell. While Katie rested Kylie headed down to the internet to update the website before returning to the hotel to get ready for tonights entertainment - A Flamenco Show!

Upon arriving at the Flamenco show was were treated to an amazing 4 course meal including the local speciality - Paella (either Chicken or Seafood variety - the chicken was better!) while watching the local family perform. Flamenco involves the use of the body, the feet and the hands to protray the message of the dance. It also uses the music to portray the mood and the performers we all very accomplished as they showed us each different element to flamenco dancing. Once again another wonderful experience!

As we decribed earlier, today was another bus day. We were stopped on our way into Spain for a passport check which involves the immagration officer boarding the bus while we all hold our passports out for him to see. We all managed to satisfy his requirements and no one was dragged off the bus so we were able to pass rather effortlessly into Spain. As like most 'bus days' there are various stops, most of the time at truck stops where we are able to buy snacks, lunch and any other requirements but as they are all fairly similar we wont mention the truck stops much as they are fairly boring and monotonous.

After arriving in Barcelona we headed straight to see Gaudi's famous La Sagrada Familia which is a large Roman Catholic basilica that is still under construction today and is unlikely to be finished until 2026 which also happens to be the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death, although the likelihood of meeting this date is disputed. Considering that construction began in 1883 it is possible the longest running construction project ever, and to be totally honest both of us struggled to see validity of such ongoing construction. It was amazing to see, although neither of really liked it all that much, but we can both appreciate the enormity of the project and the amazing detail and vision needed for such a project.

After the Familia we headed to the hotel where we were able to find internet and check our emails as we were feeling a little cut off from the outside world before having dinner in the hotel.