Today I joined two German girls I'd met at the hostel, Liza & Stephi, for our
own little walking tour up to La Sagrada Familia, the famous Gaudi designed
church that is as yet to be finished and another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Steph read out of a little German walking
tours book and Liza acted as translator for me. The line into the church was
ridiculously long so we decided to head up to Parc Guell, a Gaudi
designed park (also World Heritage), for a picnic lunch after buying some local ham rolls from a
bakery. We checked out the main square in the park and managed to find the mosaic dragon fountain at the entrance (having entered from the rear of the park) and the houses flanking the entrance looked more like gingerbread houses from a fairytale. We then caught the
Metro back to Le Barcenoleta so that the girls could hit the beach. I had
planned to visit another park, but decided to have a quick rest at the beach,
which turned into a long rest as I was too tired to get back up again! So I
lazed in the late afternoon sun reading my book and trying to avoid some sights
I did not need to see – a 60 year old woman sitting topless on the beach and
ANOTHER naked man wandering around! What is it with this city and naked men?
Having enough of the crappy inner city beach and its dirty
sand, we headed back to the hostel for a much-needed shower before heading out
for tapas at a restaurant recommended by one of Liza’s mates. It was extremely
busy (always a good sign) so we put our names on a waiting list and went for a
quick walk, though we didn’t have to wait long thanks to the efficiency of the
waiters. As it turned out our waiter could speak German and ended up taking a
shine to Liza, which meant we got “presents” of free tapas! The food was great,
the sangria even better, and the service top-notch. If only I could remember
the name of the restaurant!
