We were picked up by stretch limo at 2 on Saturday, June 26th
Julie, David, Connie, Jeff and Cathy...
Water??! Where's the champaign? (Answer: waiting for us in Barcelona!)
Our Boeing 767 arrives
And before you know it, we're in Barcelona..on a tour bus to see the city. The Voyager of the Seas won't be ready for new guests until around noon.
Symbol of the Olympics held here in 1992
The city has made permanent use of all the olympic buildings, etc.
View of the city from the Olympic park hill
Part of the old city with Gothic architecture plus the newest at right.
Gaudi's Casa Batllo in Barcelona...whimsy at its best!
Close up of balcony
Another Gaudi building, the Casa Mila
Closeup of Casa Mila.
ANTONIO GAUDI: CHURCH OF THE HOLY FAMILY - Shell of a church, a landmark of Barcelona, occupied Gaudi throughout his career. He inherited the project in 1883, a year after construction had begun.
He transformed the Gothic cathedral into a surrealistic forest of imaginative shapes.
In 1910 he secluded himself on the church site. His work, described as the three-dimensional dreams of a madman, contains bulging facades, swaying pillars, and weird protuberances.
In 1926, at 73, he was run over by a Barcelona streetcar. Only one of the 13 planned tubular towers and one transept of the church were completed when he died.
Today, funds from around the world are being solicited to continue the work.
As you can see by the cranes, the exterior work is still unfinished.
Current projection is to finish in 2020 or so.
Well, the Voyager (center) is now ready for us...
When built in 1999, it was the largest, now it's second; next year it will be third!
Aha, here's the champaigne!
