Rita has been swimming several times a week this year over here, but she has been wanting to go to the beach, so today was her big chance. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach on the Med. I left Rita and Ruth there while I went to inspect the harbour area next door.

The harbour was full of sailing boats of all sizes, plus a few motorboats. The harbour is also one of the few areas in Barcelona with high-rise buildings.

After a couple of hours wandering around, I went back to the beach to meet the girls and grab a cool drink. While we were sitting in the outdoor cafe on the beach, we noticed a young girl practicing her soccer skills, under the watchful eye of her dad/trainer. We look forward to seeing her playing for Barcelona and/or Spain in the not-too-distant future.

After drinks, we headed back to a souvenier shop selling t-shirts, since Ruth had said she wanted to get some for her kids and a Barcelona Soccer shirt for husband Nigel. They didn’t have any soccer shirts for Nigel, but we all picked up t-shirts for ourselves and/or kids. We then had lunch on the harbour foreshore at Pans & Company.

On the way back to the hotel, we walked through the 1992 Olympic Village (who will ever forget the image of the divers with the Gaudy Temple as a background?). Surprisingly, the Olympic Village buildings still look in good condition 25 years later. Is it possible that building them with a slight curve, rather than as rectangles, has enabled them to age more gracefully?

We walked back along Marina Parade; little did we know that in just a few weeks time, that same street would see 750,000 people gathered for a Catalan Independence parade.

When we got back to the hotel it was time for another sleep, for the day was yet but young, with a visit to another Gaudy site scheduled for this evening.

When we awoke, I realised that the wallpaper above our bedhead was actually a street map of Barcelona; here’s me pointing out the location of our hotel. Who needs GPS?

We again took a taxi, because this site was a bit further away. Luckily, we had a taxi rank right outside the hotel, so taxis were always easy to find (as they are in most of Barcelona). We also learned when we gave the driver destination instructions, that where we were going was not the Gaudy Gardens, but the Guell Gardens (after the name of the patron for whom Gaudy did this design work as part of a major housing subdivision, which came to nothing, at the turn of the last century). We lined up with the group sharing our same entry time, and soon entered. The first building we saw had typical Gaudy style, especially the roof, and Ruth was soon seen in her favourite pose.

The walkways through the gardens were unique and seemingly un-structural, but they have lasted for 100 years so someone must have known what they were doing.

On the balcony garden, there were many mosaic benches, but people were sitting on most of them (how inconsiderate), so I could only photograph a few segments of the benches.

The mosaic theme was even carried over into the “works” signs, with a mosaic workman, shovel and pile of dirt. The purpose of the current works is explained in the sign below. It seems that Gaudy was even ahead of his time with respect to water collection and treatment.

Once we left the main part of the gardens, we climbed a bit higher and got a good panorama over the gardens, the city and the Temple and away to the beach high-rises.

As we made our way away from the gardens, we saw that the Independence Movement took every opportunity to publicise their cause.

We then took a taxi back down to the harbour area where we had seen many restaurants on the pier earlier in the day, and took the opportunity to have Dinner at the Med.