Paracuellos de Jarama, Spain and Canary Islands

In Barcelona we stayed at Hotel Medici which was close to Gaudi’s Sacred Family Cathedral. It was a modern style hotel, and we were several stories up, so it was quiet. Our first day we went to the cathedral, only a short walk, but we took a circular route trying to find a laundromat. Getting into the cathedral was a wait, so we hiked down to Las Ramblas shopping district for a bit. The cathedral was a magnificent work of art with columns that seemed to sprout like trees, and a front door carved with ladybugs. They played organ music in the cathedral, and showed a video about its construction. Below the cathedral, there was a museum. The cathedral is still being constructed so it was scaffolded and at times, you could hear the power tools. We eventually found a laundromat, and washed our clothes. We never could understand why it was so hard to find washing facilities. The laundromat was in the neighborhood of the hospital. Hospital Sant Pau was beautiful and we wanted to tour it, but ran short of time. We did see Parc Guell and the Picasso Museum on our second day in Barcelona. We resorted to taxi because Barcelona is too big to walk efficiently. We should have learned to use the metro but took the easy way out. It seemed everywhere we went in Barcelona took longer than expected because first there was a long line for buying the ticket to get in, then with the ticket they would assign a time which gave you a two hour wait before you could enter. Of course, entering meant another line. While waiting to see Gaudi’s work at the park, we could wander around the free part of the park and see the views and visit the gift shops. The museum let us in right away, but gave us time assignments for each portion. After a while, I started to get frustrated with all the schedules because I have no watch. We enjoyed the temporary exhibit the most because it included Picasso and Dali. Dali’s work was the best! Our intention was to finish with seeing the hospital which is also a work of art, but Norm injured his back so we called it a day. The next day, we caught an all day bus to Madrid.