Sunday, 3 July 2016

SUNDAY 3RD JULY – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISH



Happy Birthday Trish. Given that it is Sunday we went to church to celebrate her birthday, but not just any church. We spent ten minutes walking to Sagrada Familia, the most impressive cathedral we have ever seen. It has been a work in progress since 1882 but the interior is now complete. It is expected that the exterior, being the construction of even taller towers than those presently existing will be completed within the next 10 years so progress is accelerating.
 
 

It is very difficult to photograph other than from a helicopter because of its size but the hopefully the photographs will give some idea of its grand scale and the intricate carving which adorns its exterior. As you might expect, the place is incredibly popular but extremely well organized The crowds did not impede our ability to see everything there was to see.
  
 

The visit included a lift ride up one of the towers to a height of 65 metres. At that height we were about two thirds of the way up the tower. That gave us spectacular views over the surrounding area but also a close up look at the construction being undertaken at the higher levels. From that level we descended down a very narrow spiral staircase. We were told that we descended 460 stairs. That could well be right.
 
 

After three very interesting hours at the cathedral, we descended into the Metro again and headed out to Port Forum where we had a celebratory lunch for Trish's birthday. It didn't quite compare with the Positano celebration of the 60th but it was a very novel place to visit and we got to ride a tram, the only form of Barcelona transport we had not yet experienced. We certainly got our money's worth out of our transport passes.
 
 
We have now pretty well completed our exploration of Barcelona I expect that tomorrow will be a rest day before we get aboard the ship on Tuesday for some energetic cruising. I describe it as energetic because we will be in a different port pretty well every day so will be trying to see as much as we can each day.

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