Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Commenced in the late 1900s and expected to be complete in 2026 (100 years after the architect Antoni Gaudi was kill in a tram accident). There have been a team working in the building - these days they have the use of computer technology to solve the many puzzles of the curious design. It is a self funded project. The inside has massive columns - granite, marble, sandstone -with branches extending high up to the ornate ceiling to give the impression of a forest. There are many stained glass windows and elaborate marble statues both inside and out. A pretty remarkable place.

We took the bus out to the Barcelona Sants central railway station to activate our global rail pass and book our tickets on the fast train to Cordoba tomorrow. We haven't done much train travel in the past so it gave us peace of mind to sort it out today rather than trying to rush in the morning.

Next stop was the National Museum of Arts of Catalunya (Museum Nacional b'Art de Catalunya). This is housed in a magnificent old building high up on the mountain (that I'm having huge difficulty finding out it's history!!!) We hopped off the bus at the bottom of flights of umpteen dozen steps and walked up past several terraces. The gardens and walls have many interesting statues. At the top, on the terrace, there was a guy playing flamenco music on his guitar - could have sat and listened to him for ages (but didn't). The only thing missing was the flamenco dancers!!! The restaurants on the upper terrace has stunning views down an avenue. We checked out the inside of the museum but not the art. Modern art's not our cup of tea. A huge ballroom was being set up for a private function and looked very impressive.

We just managed to fit in a visit to Park Guell. So glad we did cos it's another interesting place. It was quite late, we hadn't bought a ticket, but were told the park would be opened up for free in an hour!!! So we meandered around outskirts of the historic park marvelling at the gardens and the viaducts etc. The park had major input from Gaudi when it began in 1900 when Eusebi Guell was creating an elite estate - they were close friends. Work on the park halted in 1914 and Guell died soon after. His heirs offered it to the Barcelona City Council and they acquired it in 1922. It was eventually developed as a public attraction and was declared a Cultural Heritage of Humanity site by UNESCO in 1984. We managed to sit on the longest mosaic bench and take pics of the park and the city below from the upper vantage point then raced down the steps to take a pic of the ginormous dragon that's covered in brightly coloured mosaic tiles. We missed seeing the washerwomen

We took a local bus back to the city - more adventure, not something we usually do!!!

Another sidewalk meal of tapas and paella ( with water, would you believe?!!!) rounded off the end of our Barcelona stay.

We've enjoyed being on La Rambla. I'd seen many forums suggesting that it was not the best part of town but we found it to be clean and vibrant. Probably a bit noisy with underground trains often and rowdy early morning revellers but we were 6 stories up at the back of our hotel. The hotel was a bit worse for wear but clean and comfortable.

One thing we noticed was the huge police presence all over the city mostly in tiny cars or on motorbikes. In some places there were military officers with serious machine guns.

Most of the parks and playgrounds were bare sand, not grass.