Day 23 - Friday 20 July - 30 C.

Our last day in Barcelona. We decided to take the gondola up to Montjuic which is where the Olympic Stadium, pool and diving took place in 1992. The route looked quite simple on the map however in reality we got lost and could not find the gondola to take us to the top, although we could see it passing by in the distance above us.

So we continued to walk to the top of Montjuic and found the other gondola that begins there and goes in the opposite direction over the Barcelona Port towards the conference centre and onto the beach. The views were very good over Barcelona however a little hazy again with all the smog.

We could see a few cruise ships at the docks further out, these were the multi story type showing 10 – 15 decks above the promenade – just huge. Now we understand where all the crowds of tourists come from wandering up and down the Rambla. A German cruise ship must have arrived because that was the predominat language we heard on La Rambla today.

We walked back through the Barcelona Botanic Gardens, one of which which was full of Cactus. You see a lot of cactus growing naturally here but to see the variety and size in the gardens was quite unusual. They obviously thrive in the heat and dry conditions.

On our way back we stopped off in a bar on the Rambla for a beer - one each and 12 euro later - big mistake, the most we had paid for drink was 4 euro up until now, so be warned. The air-conditioning inside was a bit of a relief as it was a very hot 30C today.

I had wanted to do a tour of the Opera House here called Liceu Opera Barcelona. This is located just across the Rambla from where we are staying, so I went in for the tour (and the air-conditioning). The auditorium is the 2nd largest in Europe (Paris Opera being the largest) and is oval in shape. Unfortunately, no photos in the auditorium. They are doing Aida during July (we missed out on this by a week) so the set was in place for the production. The tour is not very extensive and it turns out that most of it was rebuilt and opened in 1999 after a 2nd fire destroyed a lot of the building. The afternoon was spent wandering around the shops, did you know the retailer Zara (now in Australia) is Spanish? And another popular shopping chain here is Mango also Spanish. However, just about shopped out in Spain, so all I bought were some teabags to make a cuppa.

Tonight, we're having dinner at a restaurant just 184 steps away - that's right, 92 steps down - the restaurant is right next door, then 92 steps back up to our apartment again .... :)