Of Art Nouveau and Clif Bars

Hey all,

The title of this post basically sums up our entire day up until about 7 pm....we traveled this hot city (low 90´s) to see the various Gaudi sites, including the famous and not finished Sagrada Familia temple. Once there, we waited 20 minutes in line for the privilege of climbing the tower. We were very much looking forward to the view of Barcelona from the top, and so therefore very much confused when we, along with all the other tourists, got to the top, walked through an inside passage to the stairs down, and were told to descend. Hmm...we thought we must have missed something, but if we did, everyone else did too. Ah, well. It´s still quite an impressive site.

We then trekked across the city, (with a little help from the Metro) to a park that Gaudi designed...lots of mosaic lizards and whatnot. Some of it very beautiful, all a little strange. It was there, under the relative shade of the "100 columns market", that we broke into our lunch: peanut butter chocolate chip clif bars. This our usual, quite satisfying, daily meal. It saves money, time, and makes us more free to splurge on dinner. Although today, a hot smashed clif bar with water warmed from being in our bags all day wasn´t exactly...refreshing. :)

There is a great market here where we scrounged up dinner...fresh fruit, bread, and cured ham. Rick Steves promised a great dessert place with ¨pudding-like hot chocolate and churros to dip in it", but we could find it nowhere.

This blog seems to have become quite food focused, so here´s a shopping update: we successfully found absinthe today, and hope that U.S. customs won´t have a problem with a few bottles of it in my luggage. I´ve also decided somehow that what I most want for my "souvenir" are a pair of euro-style tennis shoes...maybe orange and brown, maybe velcro...but can´t find the right thing at the right price. (I always like the 89 euro ones, unfortunately). Also, I can´t keep Gretchen out of the various little jewelry and bead shops, so we´ve both indulged a bit in that area.

And finally, on a serious note, we´ve been watching lots of CNN at night in our room...and alternating between sadness and disbelief at how bad the Middle East situation has gotten so quickly. We´re wondering what the news is like in the US...and very aware how fortunate we are that our worst worries are pickpockets, late trains, and heavy baggage.

Tomorrow we take a short plane ride (instead of 10 hours on the train) to Sevilla, where the temperature today was around 100. Hooray!

Hopefully our place in Sevilla will let me upload pictures,
E