Barcelona!

Friday June 8th-
What a day! We spent almost 12 hours site seeing on a bus with over 50 college students.

  It was loud, long and made me realize I am getting older. I was annoyed by the chatty girls who gossiped and giggled over Armondo, our lovely tour guide who was a wealth of information. His wife Cynthia had already warned me that if I wanted to make the most of the trip I would stay close to her husband and her son (both Armondos). Armondo Sr. is a historian and has spent the majority of his life doing archival research. Armando Jr. is an art history major who is currently working in Mumbai on a commissioned piece. Needless to say they know their stuff and I could care less about what your roommate did or didn't do last night. I finally had to ask them to be quiet. They were pissed and I was like get over it. I paid for this trip too. I am such a nerd. That's ok though…I am here to learn something! 

Our first stop…well after 2 bathroom breaks and a vomiting student…was the Torres Family winery.

I will say I was a bit disappointed as it was really quite commercialized. It reminded me of Universal Studios where you sit on a little tour bus, cart thing. They pull you around and a recording tells you about the history of the vineyard.

Driving the grounds was the cool part. 

Then they have you watch a short video, they called the "demonstration"

gave us a lovely glass of wine and escorted us to the gift shop. 

Not quite like what I have experienced in Italy, Oregon, California and Washington but I guess that may be the difference between a big label commercial winery. Back on the bus we headed into the city. 

The country side was quite nice and the sneak peeks of the coast here and there gave an added romantic feel. When we arrived in Parque Guell by Antonio Gaudi (which Armondo told us was pronounced Gaw-dEE), it was amazing. All of his works were done without any architectural plans. Quite phenomenal as you can see! 

Then we headed "a furthur dauwn tauwn" as Armondo would say to see La Sagrada Familia, which is a church that Gaudi started but was hit and killed by the tram in Barcelona before he finished it. 

It is a huge political discussion of whether they should finish it or not. Other artists have started to finish it but it has always been stopped for one reason or another. Finally we arrived at the Marti-Codolar Monastery a little after 7pm. Almost 12 hours on the bus. I was ready to get checked in. Cait and I are sharing a room.  She makes a great roommate I must say!  Kathryn, Alisha and I decided to take a stroll around the monastery and the area. We stumbled upon a Mercado and a little restaurant. After getting some agua at the market we decided to get a little sangria before heading back. As we were visiting suddenly the Armondos appeared. We invited them to visit with us. They chatted us up about art, history and Spain. We chimed in when we could but to be honest anything we could have said would have sounded stupid. Have you ever spent time with someone who was so smart you had nothing to add to the conversation but uh-huh? When you can simultaneously talk about what was going on in several different countries in the same time period and know exact dates I think there is something to be said for that! We all walked back and headed to bed. What a lovely day! Long but lovely!