billbauer

First a view of Placa d'Urquinaona outside of our hotel.  It is not Barcelona's finest plaza but very nice nevertheless. Today we are up early for an 8am bus ride to the mountain of Montserrat to the north of Barcelona.  This is what a bus tour looks like. The trip up to Montserrat has scenic views of the mountains and valleys. We arrive at Montserrat and approach the church. In the courtyard in front of the church is a wire sculpture named "Anna", for reasons not clear to me. This morning we are treated to a maintenance worker using a vacuum to retrieve pieces of paper others have thrown into the sculpture.  Not everyone gets this photo. There is a strict rule of no photographs inside the church.  I am a photographer so I dutifully follow the rule.  I am the only one not taking photographs inside the church. Montserrat is the home of the famous Black Madonna.  Since no photographs are allowed, I present you with a stock photo ...

I promise you a more exciting day today.  We are off on our first full day of adventure with our tour.  After a lecture in our hotel about Catalan history and culture we embark on a walk through Barri Gottic (old town) passing the Cathedral. It is Sunday and we encounter a group who meets here every week and does a group circle dance. We pass El Born, originally to be a modern shopping area.  But during construction of the foundation Roman ruins were found turning the site into an archaeological dig. This is Road Scholar so it must be time to eat.  This time at a tapas restaurant in Barri Gottic. After lunch we take a bus tour up through Mont Juic with a sweeping view of the Barcelona waterfront and passing the Olympic tower.  In Barcelona, time is measured by either BO or AO (before Olympics or after Olympics).  [I apologize for this and foregoing the photo.  They were taken through a glass window from a moving bus.] We st...