Sunday, July 2, 2023

June 28, 2023 - Day 59 - Day 3 in Barcelona

Today, the original plan was to go back downtown and explore the sites that were closed when we toured there Sunday, go to the Joan Miro museum and see his works and then spend the afternoon at the beach. We decided to visit the Miro museum first which is in the Montjuic Park. We took the L3 line two stops and then exited to above ground to ride the funicular up the hill. Problem was, the funicular is accessed from underground at the metro stop. It took us some exploration to learn this. We returned to the metro, discovered we had walked right by the sign pointing to the funicular when we exited and then went the correct way to get to it.

We got off at the top, exited the station and then slowly walked up to the fort on top of the hill. Even though it was only 9:30 in the morning we were dripping in sweat. I checked the temperature-79° with 60% humidity. 

On top at the fort entrance we bought a Coke from a street vendor, cooled down a bit, enjoyed the look down at the harbor below. 

We walked down past the tram station and down the hill to the Miro museum. Here we entered and toured for about an hour and a half then reversed our route down the funicular and on the metro to our place for lunch. 

Next, it was back to the Ramblas to visit the cathedral and Roman columns we missed on Sunday, a little shopping and then back to the apartment. A quick turnaround and across the street to the converted bullfighting arena. It has five floors, the 4th and 5th dedicated to a 12 plex theatre complex. It was opening night for the Dial of Destiny Indiana Jones movie and the lines were long. We walked to a sidewalk restaurant for dinner, our only meal out in Barcelona, to celebrate our last night before flying home tomorrow. Sally had salmon, me a hamburger. Both were excellent. We returned to the apartment. Sally showered and we washed a load of clothes, then we decided to go see the Sagrada Familia at night when it is all lit up.  

We rode the L3 and L5 to the Sagrada Familia and arrived about 8:40pm. Not dark yet. We walked to a grocery to get bread for tomorrow’s lunch on the flight, and three boxes of the cookies that I fell in love with here, then we walked back to the cathedral, found two of the bolted down chairs on the sidewalk unoccupied and waited for the city to get dark and the lights to come on. Well, it did finally get dark about 10:00pm, but they don’t illuminate the cathedral at night. A little disappointed, we rode back to our apartment, arriving home about 11:00pm. We packed up and got ready to leave for our bus ride to the airport at 6:30am tomorrow morning. I was so tired I just staggered around the place blindly putting everything in my pack while Sally showered again after sweating on our trip to the cathedral. I collapsed into bed while Sally finished packing up. Our last day in Barcelona came to a close. 



View of the harbor from the top of Montjuïc 



Sally with Joan Miro



A Miro original



A wall size Miro tapestry



Boarding the funicular to descend from Montjuïc 



Roman columns in Barcelona



Shopping in Barcelona




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