Welcome to Barcelona: flamenco, paella, sangria After a very long day's drive from the Beaujolis wine region with the stop off at the Pont Du Gard, we arrived in Barcelona around 6pm, utterly exhausted from the day on the bus. Dinner was true Spanish style with nachos for an entrée and my first introduction with sangria, that wonderful Spanish drink make of red wine, fruit and I'm not sure what else! After dinner, took a walk around our campsite and ended up on the beach. While some of the tour group were silly enough to go swimming in the very cold water, I was just so excited to be standing on a sandy beach, with water right in front of me for the first time in 6 months. It was such a wonderful feeling and made me realise that I have really missed my walks on the beach, but also made me remember why I was here. I was standing on a beach, yes, but a beach in Barcelona! And it was the end of the sentence - in Barcelona - that was making me more excited than the beach part. The next morning we were given a bus tour of the city of Barcelona, from first view, it was just another city. We drove up to the stadium where the Olympics were held in 1996 and further up to look over the city. Then we came down, passing important buildings and ending up at Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Begun over 100 years ago in 1882, and still less than half completed, this is Gaudi's masterpiece. When he was building it, he had the plans for it in his head, not written down anywhere and to this day, it is still being completed. The building is such a work of art that you can't really take it all in. The turrets and the detail, the figurines and the sheer size of it took my breath away. The photos I took could not do it justice. After seeing the Sagrada Familia we went to a leather demonstration. Then we went to the gothic quarter and Ali, our tour guide, took us for a walk around here. The buildings here are phenomenal and we were able to see bullet holds in walls from the Spanish inquisition. With the remainder of the afternoon free to explore, I took off with Bec and Anna, stopping to grab a sandwich for lunch and then to begin wandering down Les Rambles, the main street in Barcelona. I'm not sure what I expected of the main street but it certainly wasn't what I got! Les Rambles is filled with little market stalls selling animals, tacky souvenirs and other things. But it is a great walk all the same, taking you from the centre of town all the way down to the Christopher Columbus monument and the port area. One of the reasons I loved Barcelona was for the combination of the city with it's fantastic architecture mixed with the beautiful water in the port. Down in the port area, took some time to stroll around and check out the shops, and to sit by the water, watching the boats come and go, the cruise ships docked and to just enjoy how relaxing it was. Met up with Dan and Jane for dinner of paella and sangria. Now when I heard that the sangria cost $10 I thought it was a little overpriced - until they bought it out in the largest glass I had ever seen! Of course, it tasted fantastic and I did enjoy the paella also, although I didn't eat all of it as it was a little too seafood based for me. A little was fine. We met up with the rest of the tour group after dinner to go and see a flamenco dancing show. Of course, the dancers were supurb and made me wish that I could dance like that. One thing I will definitely be doing when I go home is to take up latin dancing again as I really enjoy watching it. The rhythem that these dancers had was just amazing and it reminded me very much of the movie Strictly Ballroom with all the foot tapping and counting off the beats. After the show was over, they got us all up and we were able to learn a few latin dancing moves which was lots of fun also. Headed back to the campsite tired but having had a fantastic day. Being in Barcelona only highlighted to me that I want to explore more of Spain and to also visit Portugal. While it wouldn't be necessary for me to return to Barcelona, there are so many other places I'd like to visit in the country.