Barcelona’s major sites are clustered closely together and we opted to take a
“hop on/hop off” tourist bus to drive us between them as a time saver. It was
the first time we’d ever used a tourist bus service like this, and I’m not sure
that I would do it again in the future. There is something about seeing a city
on foot that just feels right. In addition we were a bit disappointed at how
long it took for the bus to move between stops.  None the less, we were able to
see quite a few of the cities tourist attractions including:
 - The Olympic Stadium/Facilities
 - Barcelona’s football stadium – the largest in Europe
-  La Rambla – Barcelona’s answer to the Champs Elysee
-  The Bari Gotic region
-  Barcelona’s beach and port areas
-  The Royal Palace
-  Gaudi’s modernistic architecture including the XXX Building and la Sangria Familia – the unfinished church.

In many ways Barcelona reminds me of a small, European version of Chicago.
People come to this city just to admire the architecture and I have to admit
that of all the sites in Barcelona the big highlight for Mark and I was in the
architecture category. La Sangria Familia church is truly stunning when you see
it in person – like a big sand castle church made from wet sand and left to dry
in the sun. They’ve been working on it for over a hundred years but it still is
far from finished. We read somewhere that at the rate they are working on it, it
won’t be done for another 100 plus years. Still, it’s neat to think that perhaps
one day our grand children or great grandchildren will visit this site and this
church will still be there, completed and in all it’s glory and we will have
been there at the time of it’s construction.

One last thought, I still find it fascinating that the English/American word
“Gaudy” is derived from the name of the architect who designed a number of
buildings in Spain. Who would have thought?