Better Late than Never Barcelona

After some slight hesitation, we decided to follow through with our original plans and go to Barcelona to wrap up our last excursion. 

With noticing the amount of books that still needed to be done, we did not want to leave before we knew that we left ourselves enough time to complete the rest of the books when we came back. So, with this motivation we worked several 10 hour days before we left. And we were both so happy to have a break from the work. It is hard to be in the apartment without

 feeling like we should be working, as the library occupies one of rooms!

The train ride was really long (which was ok by us!) In between two four-hour train rides we had a four hour layover in Montpellier. We were not originally excited about this layover as none of tour books even talked about the place! But what a surprise! The town was simply marvelous.  We had lunch and walked around to see the town and both agreed that we would come back if we had the opportunity.

Barcelona was a mixture of letting go from the strenuous past week of work to seeing all the sights that Kathryn in particular was excited to see. We did minimal planning with only reading a guide book on the train ride there, and booking two shows that were a must see, including a Flamenco show and going to the Palau de Musica to hear a Classical Quartet. This was much different from the past two excursions where we planned a lot before going.

The first day we spent walking the street of Barcelona, walking down La Rambla which is long pedestrian mall. The lined streets are filled with bird and flower vendors (yes bird vendors – from roosters cockal-do-a doing to canaries!), as well as street entertainers for the tourists. Right off this road is the St. Joseph Market, - which is said to be one of the most beautiful and colorful markets of Europe. 

We were both going crazy when we walked in, we had never seen such pretty display of vendors selling vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, chocolate, eggs, andspices. This same day we visited the Port Vell, Ciutadella Park, Monument to Columbus and Barceloneta. That night we experienced some heartache as we got terribly lost finding the Palau de Musica and then come to find out we had our nights mixed up and showed up for our quartet when we were supposed to be up the mountain at the Flamenco show. We were both devastated. After some time of Kathryn crying and Debbie consoling we thought we needed to contact theFlamenco show. 

There was a hotel right there and the receptionist did not only know perfect English but she used to work at that particular Flamenco show. We explained our story and she as able to get our tickets changed to the next night, even though the show had already ended! We were both so grateful.

The next day we visited many of Gaudi’s works scattered through out Barcelona including Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, Temple of the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and Palau Guell. We both considered Gaudi’s works before as well, “gaudy”. But after learning and touring just a small amount of his works, we were fascinated at the some of reasons and inspirations of his architecture- he was very ingenious and creative at the same time. Upon his graduation one of his professeurs said I don’t know if he’s a genious or a lunatic. 

We went to the Flamenco show and at intermission we left and made it to the Quartet just in time for us to take our seats, take in the beautiful scenery and for the lights to lower for the music to start.

We were truly felt watched-over and led by God through-out our time in Barcelona. There were times we felt very frustrated and lost and while sometime we could not feel his presence, He was there always guiding us. Looking back we can only now see how protected we were- We really look forward to sharing in more detail the experiences we have both had when His presence was so great- it could not be chalked-up to coincidence.

We have arrived back home safely to our home away from home and working very long hours to finish things up. We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel- but we both know that we still have to work really hard to get to the end of the tunnel! With less then a week to go we are wrapping up with work and our time here in Aix. And as we like it here very much, we are both ready to come home now- but enjoying every day up until we leave!