An Unfitting End in Barcelona

After lunch on Wednesday, we went to the Cathedral. Built between 1298 and 1460, the building has chapel after chapel of jaw-dropping beauty. The choir section is nice to sit and reflect in, taking in the ornate wooden carvings, and the crypt down below the main altar is an unusual touch.

However, the most interesting (in my book) part of the Cathedral is the cloister. There are beautiful fountains, the famed geese of the Cathedral (no, I hadn't heard of them either, but apparently the geese are big in Barcelona), and an area to walk around and reflect. There is also a free, small museum with some beautiful art and a big ornate gold thingie that is well protected. The girls and I immediately made plans to steal it and sell it to the British Museum for a fortune.

Then we wandered on to other parts of the area. First, we stopped at Caixa de Fang and bought some fine-looking, yet affordable ceramic pottery (see, I did take everyone shopping!). Then we went looking for a noted gourmet chocolate shop, but alas, it was closed for August. Just wandering the narrow streets near the Cathedral is pretty cool.

We rambled over to Las Ramblas, the main street of Barcelona. From there we sidetracked through the Mercado de La Boqueria (an outdoor food market) and then we stopped for the traditional ice cream near the one Gaudi building we did not visit -- Palau Guell. I checked -- but it's only open from 10am till 2:30pm, and it was 3:15. Word on the street is that it is the least interesting Gaudi to visit -- primarily because large chunks of it are closed and being renovated.

We headed on down Las Ramblas to the Christopher Columbus monument, which fittingly is right by the ports. We crossed the wide, new pedestrian footbridge in the Port Vell area. The girls were complaining with the heat and the long walking, but once they saw the mall they became more interested.

So, oddly, our two week trip (well, really 12 days because two were essentially travel days -- overnight to Athens, and then all day back to the States) finished with a whimper -- at a mall. I did not shop, but (to give me credit) neither did I complain.

Walking back across the pedestrian bridge, we learned it doubles as a drawbridge for the marina, as it swung open to let two large sailboats through. That was neat to watch, as was the huge powered catamaran that was maneuvering around another part of the harbor -- looking like a space age vehicle of sorts.

We metro'd back to our neighborhood, and relaxed a bit before dinner. The tapas restaurant I wanted to go to was full up, so we went to option B -- a tapas restaurant right down the street from our hotel on the Passeig de Gracia. The meal was fine -- we enjoyed some tapas and then shared some entrees like tapas. Carol and I shared a nice bottle of Priorat, which has surpassed Rioja as my favorite type of Spanish wine.

We whiffed on the place we wanted to go for dessert (good write-up in one of the guidebooks, but they would only seat us if we were getting dinner -- and this at 10:05pm). Carol and I finished off the evening with a drink at the Hotel Majestic's rooftop bar, with Barcelona spread out all around us.

The trip was all but over.