A Full Day in Barcelona - and We Like the Place. (No wonder Madrid won't let her go)

For a huge city - Barcelona has turned out, so far, to be a great place to visit.  

The sights are amazing, the food is delicious, the sidewalks are clean, and the people are friendly even though we can only speak a few words of Spanish.

Today we spent much of our day on a tour bus similar to the one you see above on the top deck with an open top.  You received a tour map and a set of earphones you plugged in to choose any of 16 different languages.  (We decided on English and got to hear a British lady with a thick Cockney accent that may just as well have been Spanish - almost,)

Our bus had a rag top that was closed during a brief rain shower.  Notice the trees lining the streets.  The trees were everywhere and some trees were Palm.  The streets were narrow so the precision of the bus drivers was amazng!

Barcelona is a city of beautiful architecture....

from the ancient fortresses and castles,,,,,

to the ultra-modern .......

and many well-designed buildings in between.

There is a pretty waterfront on the Mediterranean Sea that reminded us of Chicago.

 But the marinas of Barcelona have many more pleasure boats and other sea-going vessels.

This cathedral above is the most photographed building in the city.

It is the Temple of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi and it was drawing a huge crowd of visitors.

Warning - you may get to see more pictures of Barcelona if sights get boring on the ship.

We sail tomorrow, Wednesday October 5, 2017.