Wednesday 30th March

17C sunny, cloudy and some showers

Oolah!! (thats Spanish for "hello") The alarm went off at 7 this morning.....it's still quite dark and we wondered if we'd set the clock wrong but unfortunately it was the right time. After breaky we headed off on a sightseeing trip to Montjuic see the Olympic Stadium (just a stadium) and also some great panoramic views of the port and city. The port is the 5th busiest port in the world for cruise ships. The drive continued through the old town which has very small narrow streets. There is also part of an old medieval wall there. Saw a statue of Colombus erected to commemorate his arrival in 1493. The Roman walls around the city were built in the first century but were taken down so the city could expand. There is a few places where bits of the wall and aquaducts still stand. We went into the Gothic centre where in a square there is the Town Hall on one side and a Government building on the other. This is from the 14 & 15th century. There is also Barcelona Cathedral in the Gothic centre, built in 1298 and completed in 1459. The 12th to the 15th century were good for business in Barcelona then it went downhill due to the trade moving further north. We drove along Passeig de Gracia which contains two of Antoni Gaudi's masterpieces of architecture, the first being a building he renovated for a textile magnate and the second, a construction which broke completely with the canons of conventional architecture. It has undulating curves....no start, no end. Our guide, Wendy, called it organic. Gaudi was the son of a coppersmith and was sent to Barcelona to study architecture. We stopped at the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church) which started building in 1882 and is a neo-gothic church. It was designed by Filar and taken over by Gaudi when he was just 31 years of age. He died aged 71 with the church still not finished. To this day, the church is still being constructed and is expected to finish in 2026! A truly fascinating structure. Unfortunatley we didn't go inside as there was a couple of hours wait in the queue. Bought a scoop of icecream for 2.50 euro.....pretty yummy. Moving out of the city to Montserrat but first a stop at Plaza Catalunia to drop off people not going to Montserrat. It was a 45 minute bus ride to get there and on the way we were told that people visit the monestry as it has a black Madonna. Black's associated with energy and Montserrat is considered a vortex of energy. The Madonna is a wooden statue built in the late 12th century. The wood is birch and scientists discovered the reason it's black is because the statue is covered with a layer of some sort of protection and throughout the centuries it's turned black. The monestry was built in the 11th century although there's not much left of the original building. We saw a couple of monks in their habit. Apparently all of them have jobs during the day...writer, teacher, lecturer and one is even a fire fighter! The church, Our Lady, was built in the 15th century. Further down the hill is a nunnery. We drove up the solth side of Montserrat and down the north side. We got back to the hotel around 5pm. Dinner is at 8pm at the hotel so l'm blogging while waiting for something to eat. No rain today, the weather was pretty good but in the mountains it was a bit colder. Mum doesn't want to contribute to the blog....she's hand writing one of her own.