Confortel Barcelona

... Gruell is a mix of a natural rock carvings and buildings all decorated with a mosaic finish...and is truly spectacular!! I also had to force Mary to enjoy (i think she would believe the word endure is more appropriate) a tour of the Camp Nou!! For those that don't kow what it is, it is FC Barcelona's famous stadium. By the end of the tour however, Mary knew more about FC Barcelona than I did!!!<br><br>Barcelona was a hectic, fast paced big city ...

Day three of my european adventure. We spent the morning working at the hospital. At 2 we left to go walking in Barcelona. We did not return until after 6 (whew alot of walking). We saw much of the Eixemple district. We took Avenue De Gaudi and saw Iglesia Sagrada Familia ...

... proved to be quite an experience! The best part of it was that she didn't speak any Catalán, so I finally understood every word that transpired during every consultation. As a side note, although most patients and doctors speak in Catalán, the patients kindly agreed to speak in Castellano for my sake and apologised for speaking in Catalán in the first place! As frustrated as I am with Catalán, I've found everyone to be so lovely and considerate and even to ...

... the bullfighting, the two days we spent in Sevilla were rather uneventful. We walked around the vast old city, had proper coffee in the mornings. Which by the way, is something we have never gone cheap on. Other than that, Sevilla was a Spanish city to the utmost, which in and of itself is always entertaining. From Sevilla we travelled only for night to Valencia. We had arranged to couchsurf in Valencia, and did ...

... here was spectacular. The entire city of Barcelona was visible along with the Mediterranean Sea. Also at the top was another beautiful church with even better views. We ate our packed lunch on the church´s steps before descending on the funicular and tram. From here our last two sights of the day were two buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi. The first is called La Pedrera. It is a great example ...

... toward Anacapri where my husband took a ski lift to an observation area at the top of the cliff. He took some breath-taking pictures from the top. We had a "stamped" out lunch given to our entire group- pasta and "chicken" which looked just like a piece of honeybaked ham. I bought several necklaces for my family and friends. Then we took a funicular down to the town of Capri-proper. We walked around the beautiful streets, window shopping. We stopped for gelato (coffee ...

... to serve us on the plane. After the 2 or 3 hour flight we arrive in Madrid. No English. Our very minimal Spanish skills somehow get us to our hostel though it was not easy nor fast. Basically hiked around the city asking anyone from police to people sitting on benches "Donde esta...." All of us had already hit the wall and bounced back. So so thirsty and hungry. Sit down to eat, don´t understand anything besides "agua" on the menu. After a long nap we have yet another ...

... Because of China's one child policy, they are all only children. But they have adopted each other as brothers and sisters and quickly added me to their family. Since I still had more time after they left, I didn't worry about what I did or didn't get to see with them. As it turned out, we hit most everything I was wanting to visit. But ...

... However, upon arrival in Barcelona we were all energized to be here. We started the day exchanging currency for Pacetas. It's really confusing going from the Italian Lire to the Spanish Paceta because you lose sight of how much your spending. anyways, we continued through the city seeing a few Antonio Gaudi buildings from a distance. Thank goodness Rosa, speaks spanish to negotiate our tickets to madrid ...

... se disculpó por los malos modos de su compatriota y me sacó la foto. Descubrí que los catalanes están muy orgullosos de su lengua y no quieren saber nada de nada con eso de hablar castellano.<br><br><br><br> Llegué a la rambla, una peatonal arbolada y caminé hasta el mar, donde estaba la estatua de Colón. La playa tenía arena y el agua era transparente, aclaro. Y estamos hablando de pleno centro de la ciudad! Crucé un boulevard con palmeras y me ...