Since the sun was out after our Camp Nou tour and lunch, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and ride the cable car (http://www.telefericdemontjuic.cat/en) near Montjuic. After taking the subway down near the wharf, we rode on a funicular (similar to a cog train but with a cable) up to the middle of the hill, followed by a short ride on the cable car. At the top, we found the castle that (http://www.bcn.cat/castelldemontjuic/en/welcome.html) protected the city until the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Franco, the dictator who ruled Spain for nearly 40 years, used the castle as a prison. The structure was more of a fortress than a castle and we found the breeze had freshened quite a bit as we walked along the ramparts. The views of the port and city were stunning, especially seeing how Barcelona sprawled from the waterfront to the surrounding hills.
Tired, we wandered back down the hill and retraced our steps via the cable car, funicular, and subway. We emerged at the station near the University and tried to find our way back to the hotel. However, we couldn’t find the Gran Via (the street our hotel was on). After wandering about for half an hour, a passerby took pity on us and gave us directions. It turns out that if there is a plaza, all streets around it are named for the plaza (with their own numbering system), even if the rest of the street past the plaza has another name. In our case the plaza was the Plaza Universitat and all the streets around were named Universitat. A block or so later, it's back to Gran Via. Just when we think we're getting the hang of things, we get thrown another loop! Another fact to file away for future use...
