Getting harder to keep track. But this is Monday, even though I'm writing this on Tuesday morning.
A leisurely day, but we explored Montjuic. We did this 3 years ago, but it was a gloomy day and all we could really remember is that we both had to go to the bathroom and we couldn't because it was closing time and things were locked up and guards wouldn't let us in to use the bathroom, even though I used my best pigeon Spanish on them and we had to walk half-way down the hill because the cable cars weren't operating and it was all a mess and painful to our bladders as well.
So I decided we needed to give this Barcelona historical site a 2nd chance and this time we got it right. Montjuic started out as a fortress back in the 1600's. Now it houses an a municipal building and Olympic Stadium. It offers an unobstructed 360 degree view of Barcelona. Last visit, we saw a lot of low-lying clouds. This time we got the view.
We counted two very large and two smaller cruise ships. Then we spotted yet another one on another side of the lookout
We got there by taking the subway to the funicular and as we were walking to the funicular, I believe I thwarted a pickpocketer bent on targeting Gene. I was walking along side Gene and a few steps behind (I can never keep up -- thank goodness, this time) chatting away. Then in my very far peripheral vision, I thought I saw someone reach out as though he/she were going to tap Gene on his shoulder. So I turned to say "can we help you?" Because last night someone did come up to us in the subway asking if we could please show him what and where the LaRambla stop was. He was totally lost (had a German accent, I think). When I turned the guy disappeared and when I looked, he was waaaaay down the hallway leaving the place. He had looked like he was following directions and coming along with everyone else INTO the place up to that point.
In about a half-second, I put everything together and asked Gene to check to see if he had everything -- wallet, phones, whatever. And he did. HOWEVER, the clasp on his ubiquitous leather pouch was undone. And so I think I had turned around just after this guy undid the clasp. He probably wouldn't have gotten anything. Gene takes FOREVER to pull his wallet or phones out the pouch. He's like George Costanza in that old Seinfeld episode with the overstuffed wallet. But we were super-cautious for the rest of the day.
From atop Montjuic, we spotted Sagrada Familia, the famous church that the family's been working on since1882. Gaudi became involved in the project in 1883. My understanding is that it's scheduled to be completed by 2026 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The church is, well, interesting. Perhaps the best example of why the name "Gaudi" represents what it does:
Christmas tree? Check:
Year-round manger scene below Christmas tree? Check:
Piles of fruit for no apparent reason? Check:
A little bit of every type of design? Check:
Whew! Actually from a distance, it makes an impressive landmark. Up close, well to paraphrase what the lead character in "Clueless" said of a boy, "it's a Monet. It looks fabulous from a distance, but when you get up close, you see what a mess it is." And yet fascinating and moving when you realize how generations of one family are pouring so much emotion into this one structure.
Starting to forget to record the exact number of steps before it switches back to 0 at midnight, but when I last looked around 10:30pm, and was back in the apartment, it was about 13,152, so I'll stick with that.
Steps for the day = 13,152
Total for trip = 234,539
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