Espana!

This past weekend, Ryan and I traveled to Spain to visit some college friends of ours.  They live just outside of Barcelona, so we thought it would be a lot of fun to go see them!  We flew into Barcelona and were able to explore the town very briefly.  After we arrived at night, we headed out to a famous fountain Ryan had found, called the Magic Fountain.  Every night, there are a few shows where they light up the fountain and play music.  This was not just some little fountain...the fountain was so big and the show was amazing.  We both agreed that it was one of the coolest things that we have seen thus far on our adventures in Europe.  We walked around and looked at all the fountains in the area and then headed back to our hotel.  We woke up pretty early the next morning so we could see the main sights of Barcelona.  Our first stop was to see the Barcelona Cathedral, which was right across the plaza from our hotel.  After the Cathedral, we headed over to see the Sagrada Familia, built by Gaudi, a unique architect.  His church was something like I have ever seen before...very unique and ironically very gaudy.  It was far from being done and was only going to get more unique.  We headed over to see another one of his creations, an apartment building, also very unique.  We then headed down La Rambla, which is just the name of a very popular street.  We walked through La Rambla and saw many stores, street vendors, and cafes.  After walking down the street, we headed to the beach.  It was so beautiful walking along side the Mediterranean Sea.  When we got to the beach, we were unexpectadly surprised by some people not wearing a swimsuit.  Okay, I knew this happened, but I did not think it happened on the public beaches.  But oh did it....it was definatly not my cup of tea.  We stuck our toes in the water and got out of there as quickly as we could.  After our beach visit, we walked through the Gothic Quarter.  This is just a series of small alley ways filled with little plazas, cafes, and stores.  It was really quaint to walk around and just people watch.  After we sat on a plaza for a while enjoying a drink, we headed back to our hotel so we could catch our train to visit our friends.  We met up with them just before dinner time (which in our world is 6...but since we were in Spain, we had 2 hours to go before we could eat.)  So, instead of eating dinner, we explored the old part of Girona, the town they live in.  After walking around the pretty streets, we found a nice restaurant on a plaza with some traditional food.  The most traditional dish in the part of Spain we were in was called Paella...which we of course tried.  It was a rice with seasoning, vegetables, and seafood mixed together...quite yummy!  After dinner, we headed back to their place for some good sleep!  Saturday started out very relaxing.  We explored more of the town and even went into another church...go figure!  This Cathedral has the second biggest nave (the main inside part) behind St. Peter's Basillica in the Vatican.  After the Cathedral, we headed to the local market to pick up some food!  This was really cool...everything was sold fresh.  Vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, dried fruit, nuts, and even spices!  We were amazed walking around.  We headed back up to their place and made some really delicious tacos for lunch (which is also later in the day....those Spainards have such a late schedule!).  After our lunch, we headed out into the country side for a drive.  We drove through very windy streets, to the top of foothills, by a resevoir, and through many small towns.  Our favorite view was probably from the bottom of the reservoir looking into the foothills of the Pyrenees.  It was so beautiful and so peaceful!  We ended up in a small town called Basilou and ate a small dinner here.  We headed back to Girona since Ryan and I had to get up pretty early to catch a bus back to Barcelona for our flight.  We had such a fun weekend visiting good college friends!  Thanks for the hospitality Flip and Lisa!  Below are some pictures!

Avenue leading to the Magic Fountain

At the edge of the Magic Fountain

Magic Fountain during one of the shows. The colors were pretty impressive.

Looking up from the Magic Fountain towards the National Museum of Art with spotlights and water falls .

More impressive colors from the fountain

Pretty impressive water height reached by the fountain

You guessed it-the fountain

Looking up again towards the National Museum of Art. The black figure in the front is Sarah.

There she is!

Looking down from the National Museum of Art over Barcelona

Looking down again, this time at the Magic Fountain

Again looking up at the National Museum of Art

Mmmm....Nutella filled doughnuts

Front of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia

Lower on the front of Sagrada Familia. Very different than any other church we've seen before.

Easy to see from the cranes that work is still going on.

Back of the Sagrada Familia

The happy couple in in front of the Sagrada Familia

Another Gaudi architectural work.

Walking down La Rambla

Statue of Christopher Colombus at the end of La Rambla

Sarah at the beach. If you look hard enough behind her you're likely to see some old naked people.

Wandering through the gothic quarter

Sarah decided to enjoy the Spanish culture and take an afternoon siesta

Girona Cathedral

Looking along the river in Girona with the cathedral in the background

Lisa and Sarah on the bridge with part of old town Girona in the background

Pyrenees mountains after a long drive up (thanks Flip!)

Looking over the foothills of the Pyrenees 

At a reservoir not too far from Girona

The two of us with Lisa and Flip at the reservoir

Basilou's old town

The bridge at Basilou lit up at night