On Tuesday, we started the day out at the Barcelona Olympic complex to see the Calatrava Radio Tower and the Jardi Botanicos Barcelona - a fairly new botanical garden designed by a local Barcelona design firm that included different sections devoted to plants from areas around the world with the same climate as Barcelona.

We then went to visit the famous Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Mies van der Rohe and on permanent display near the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. After sketching for a while, we headed out to see the famous 'Gaudi theme park' Parc Guell, stopping to see a recent library project along the way.

Parc Guell is very popular with locals as well as tourists, consisting of a pavilion with curved benches on top from which one can view the entire city. The area surrounding the pavilion consists of housing projects designed by Gaudi.

I was sick on Wednesday, apparently from a stomach bug, or something odd with the local water, so I missed out on the Montserrant trip.

Today, our last full day in Barcelona, we went back to Sagrada Familia in the morning, so that we would have enough time to visit the entire church, including the lifts to the top of the towers that have been constructed over the Crucifixion facade. Much of the interior is taken up by the ongoing construction, but the basement is finished and hosts a thorough museum on Gaudi and his work on the church, and the work since his death. Apparently, during the Civil War, anarchists destroyed the original models and drawings, so what they are currently working from are photos and old copies, as well as what the best assumption as to what Gaudi would have done is. The church is supposed to be finished around 2020.

We then walked down to Tori Agbar, the conical skyscraper in Barcelona. Rather disappointing up close, it really only looks cool lit up at night.

We ate lunch at a nearby shopping center at a Pans and Company, a Spanish fastfood chain. The cashier-girl was new on the job and spoke next to no English, making my small Spanish vocabulary stretch quite a bit. When we finally got our food and were eating, she came over to our table and set down a ceramic plate and cup in bubblewrap next to me. I looked at her in confusion, and was told, 'Es un presente. Para tu.' before she toddled back to her register. I don't know if it's a common practice to give out dishes to random customers, or if I managed to hit the jackpot timing-wise, but I'm now the proud owner of a matching Pans and Company plate and cup.

After lunch, we went down to the beach to see the Herzog and de Meuron project, the Barcelona Forum. The building currently houses a display on statistics about the Catalunya area of Spain, as well as an architectural display about urban design projects in Barcelona, including a HUGE model of the city.

We finished out the day on the beach, myself and the other girls only wading, while many of the guys had brought their swim trunks. We only stayed for about half an hour before heading back to the hotel to start packing for our early morning flight to Bilbao tomorrow morning.