A is For …

Posted on August 3, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

Arezzo!

Heard of it? I’m guessing many haven’t. Or maybe it’s just me … I sure hadn’t heard of it before.

Dan and I had talked about visiting some smaller towns — ones that weren’t so tourist-filled. I looked at our itinerary and chose this place because it was between Florence and our next destination. (But yes, I promise I did read about it and thought it was an interesting sounding spot.)

So this morning we ate a bit earlier and ended up in a taxi a bit earlier than we expected, but since I get nervous about missing trains and planes I was okay with that. The taxi driver took a route that landed us behind a (small) trash collecting vehicle, and our fee was getting higher as we sat there, but what can we do? He did get us to the train station, and when Dan went to pay he said he didn’t accept cards. Heh. Right. Dan questioned that and then the driver lowered the price. Well whatever, we had the cash, and we saved a tiny bit of money.

We were (surprise, surprise) too early. Okay … no surprise at all. This is what an early bird looks like:

And here is what that early bird looks like when he gets on the train:

When we got on the train we learned that our seats were back-to-back rather than facing each other. This was the second time this happened, and I’m realizing I was reading the seating chart incorrectly. What a goof I can be! We have at least one more train where I very likely did the same thing. I’m hoping it’s just one more, but I don’t think I want to check the tickets at the moment — I hate to find out I’m wrong and there are more. I can’t find a place to see if we can change seats, so it’ll be what it’ll be. This time it was no issue, as the train was close to empty anyway. Maybe it’ll be that way on the rest of the trips. I can hope.

We arrived in a very hot Arezzo. I guess I should have researched temperatures as well! At first glance it seemed like a ho-hum place. We even agreed we’d just relax and hang out and make it an easy and lazy day tomorrow. We found our little B&B (which doesn’t come with the second B right at the location, but we have to walk to “Coffee O’Clock” for that. Not a big deal, but when I reserved the place the breakfast looked so yummy at the B&B. It’s a small place, and the elevator is a funny little thing (The two of us can’t fit into it with our backpacks and all!) The stairs are, as is frequently the case, spiral things. I believe there might only be four rooms here, and I’m not sure anyone else is even staying here at the moment. Our room is very simple, but pretty large, and it will do fine for the brief time we are here (two nights).

While in our room I realized our next train was scheduled several hours after we have to check out here, so I quickly went online and managed to change those tickets to an earlier time. Right after I looked more carefully at our tickets: it’s just a regional train (no specific seats) and there is a four hour allowance to go on a different train. Oops! Lesson learned on that one. After some time (since we weren’t wowed by the city we were moving slowly) we went out to see what we could find for lunch. Wellll … we went up the street a bit and suddenly we were in an old part of the town and it was so nice, and full of surprises!

But first lunch: we ordered and it’s about half the price as it was in Florence. Same with our lodging. It’ll be nice to pay a bit less for a while. Both Barcelona and Florence were more costly. I was starting to get a bit worried about how much we’d spend. (Truth be told, we could do the “order and then stand up to eat your lunch” kind of place and save money. But we kind of like to sit down when we’re eating.)

Back to the cool city info: there’s the old wall (this was an Etruscan town), the cathedral was really nice, the main piazza is very cool, and there is just a lot to see. I’m sure we won’t get to it all, but we’ll do what we can fit in our one full day here!

Some trivia: Guido Monaco (Guido d’Arezzo) taught music here, and he’s the one credited with making “the modern musical note system with the invention of the tetra-gram” (reading from the info on a map we were given). And you all probably knew that already, but I only learned about that when I was looking at Arezzo for this trip. Some of “Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni) was filmed here. They have a horse riding joust every year (we won’t be here then). Finally Petrarch (really Francesco Petrarca) was born here.

As always we took a bit of a siesta in the late afternoon. (Well, Dan took a siesta and I took a shower, if I’m going to be honest here. You’d thank me for taking that shower if you were here with us.)

Dinner was a nice little place right around the corner, eating outside in a wonderful temperature at that point. We aren’t sure what tomorrow will bring: they say it might rain here. That would be a first on this trip.

Ciao for now!

Final Florence Fun

Posted on August 2, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

This is it: our last day in Florence has just ended. It’s 11:28 PM, and I’m pretty darn fried, so I will try to get this out quickly and enjoy my pillow for a while. Our train tomorrow is in the morning, so sleep now would be a good idea.

After getting our act together (which takes us longer than one might think), we opted to go visit Fiesole (look it up, I’m trying to get this out too quickly!) rather than stay in Florence. We took a bus there (the only other options being walking (NO way) or taxi (too costly). Bus drivers everywhere, I’m convinced, are just nuts! The speed, and driving by pedestrians and cars SO closely … I just trust they know what they are doing and hope for no deaths.

Walking to the bus, and on the bus …

Fiesole was a spur of the moment decision, so we didn’t know what to do, where to go, or what to expect. I just knew there was a “view” there. And so there was. We also had lunch there. I think we must have something like, “Please don’t pay attention to us!” on our backs or something, as it took a while to get a menu and then a while to get served. Oh well. No rush, right?

Here is a collection of images (again, as always, unprocessed and quickly posted).

Then it was back to our hotel, as usual, to rest up. We are getting good at “resting up”.

Then we headed back to the other side of the river to see the Palazzo Pitti. Some of it was closed, and the part we should have opted for was the one for which we didn’t get tickets (the gardens), but we saw two art collections, the older and the “modern” (which meant not as old as the old. Heh.). I will confess I’m getting overwhelmed by so much art and probably need a break. But what a place. Crazy ornate ceilings, frescoes and all. What a life the wealthy lived back then.

Photos (the shells and the photo after that are snippets of tables that were really amazing):

We took a short break near a church, having Aperol Spritzes and chips (seems to be a “thing’ here to have the chips — as in potato chips), walked over a bridge, and eventually found our dinner spot. Maps don’t always work well in this city!

The dinner was great (thank you, Brandon, for suggesting it!), and we met a couple across from our table who we ended up chatting with. Their daughter is a high school senior and is studying voice in the Julliard Middle School (or whatever it’s called) program, but was at a music festival in Nice. And enjoyable evening, for sure, but it went on much longer than we had planned.

This is what our street looks like at 11:25 PM. Pretty nuts!

Now goodnight. As I mentioned, we have to get up early and we have a train to catch!

Clean Clothes, Tired People

Posted on August 1, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

This morning was laundry day, primarily for Dan (I do most of my wash in the sink), so after breakfast he went down and used the laundromat that is very nearby, and I goofed off here in the room. (Hey, I got Wordle on the second guess … yippee for me!) Then it was off to the Uffizi to pick up our tickets I’d reserved ahead of time.

(Brandon, did you know about this other spot for the perfume place?)

Below are a few photos of things I saw. Normally I no longer take photos of artwork, but I figured I’d do some for this blog. Some you will probably recognize. One question (since I’m lazy and don’t want to look it up): why is Mary always in a blue cloak, frequently with green lining, and a red or pink dress? Anyone?

From Uffizi we went on the lunch hunt. Lo and behold, we ended up right across the street from our hotel. Handy, since we were going to put our feet up for a while. The focaccia we ordered were presented in an interesting way:

After a bit of rest (I don’t recall taking rests last time we did a trip … guess our age is showing!) we went back out, crossed over the bridge again, and went up a bit of a hill. We sure weren’t the only ones up there! We ended up at a spot where we had an amazing view, along with a ton of other people, sellers, a singer/guitarist, and one guy who would get the crowd that was sitting on a bunch of stairs to do goofy things. It was like one huge party, and while I am not one for parties it really was a kick to be there.

Then back down the hill …

and dinner at another restaurant very close to our hotel. This time we ended our meal with cantucci and vin santo. Finally!

Tomorrow we don’t have a lot of plans, so I suspect we’ll have to figure things out in the morning. We thought about Fiesole (recommended by several people), but I’m just not sure if we have the “get-up-and-go” energy. We’ll see!

And now we are pretty darn tired.

Buona sera!

Monday Means Duomo

Posted on July 31, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

After breakfast we took a while to get moving, but we are on vacation, so it really doesn’t matter. Finally, though, we went to the Santa Maria del Fiore (The Florence Duomo), and checked out the lines: while we had tickets, there’s no “skip the line” kind of thing. We walked past a VERY long line for the cathedral (there’s no ticket required for that, but what a long line!) so we opted instead to begin with the Santa Reparata line. I’ll confess I had no idea what Santa Reparata even was — it just came with the ticket we purchased. (You can click on the link to read about it, but if you don’t want to I will at least tell you it’s an archaeological dig, below the Duomo Cathedral.) While the line wasn’t horrendous, it stopped for a while and we just stood there, but finally we were in and, lo and behold, it let us in to the church itself. Nice! We took a few photos, but realized that we come out of Santa Reparata the same we we go in so we figured we’d see more of the cathedral on the way out … and thankfully we we can ignore that long line outside.

Seeing the old church — what remains, that is — was really something. I love to see the floor tile work and imaging it was being walked on so very long ago.

Back to the cathedral we went.

From there we checked out the Baptistry of St. John. I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed because they were working on things and there was so much scaffolding, but the website had warned us of that so it’s not like I hadn’t read it earlier. The floor, though, was very cool and I couldn’t stop taking photos of it. There were other interesting things I could photograph attempting to leave out the scaffolding for the most part.

Then it was a walk to find lunch and, yes, we took some time, as always, to figure out where to eat because that’s how we do things!

We were also planning on getting to the Brandon recommended Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella. It was gorgeous inside, and the fragrances I checked out were wonderful. So was the interior of the building.

In addition they had an installation there called Blooming in Paradise that I just loved. I can try and post the video here, but I am guessing it won’t load. But photos … I have photos!

Finally we went to the Duomo’s museum. We walked around. we looked at statues and lots of shiny things, as well as the garb important men wore … but honestly, I get a bit weary of all that after a while. This work, though, was amazing:

So we opted to head back to the hotel for a rest after having just a little bit of gelato.

When we arrived at our hotel, though, the man at the desk, Allesandro, started talking to us. And we talked for quite some time, learning more about Italy, the language, and lots of other things. I believe it was at least an hour standing at the desk! He recommended a few places for both drinks and food, so we decided to rest a wee bit and then head to one of the places close by.

The restaurant … oh dear … the food we were served was good. The service was the worst I’ve ever experienced! The forgot Dan’s main dish entirely. It took eons to get the server’s attention, and we ordered cantucci and vin santo for dessert. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we got his attention again and he said it was left underneath the counter or some such thing. We said never mind, we’ll just take the bill, which he (finally) brought out and of course it included Dan’s main. So we had to point that out and he brought it out with the main removed, but Dan said it still was off somehow, but we just wanted to leave at that point! I chalk it up to, perhaps, a server’s first week. At least I hope so!

Tomorrow it’s a bit of laundry and then a trip to a museum.

Arrivederci!

A Firenze Sunday

Posted on July 30, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

We began our day with breakfast at the hotel. Might as well — it came with the room! It’s a small room, so we are asked what time we would like and are told it’s a 30 minute stay, but the man at the front desk implied that was rather flexible, and since there were barely any people in the room I wasn’t worried and didn’t feel rushed.

Our breakfast room:

After going back up to our room (remember how we are on the third floor? We have to go up and down several times a day … I just love getting the stair credits on my watch!) we went out to ramble some more.

The front of our hotel (all you see is the door):

We ended up going through a section where there were so many stalls and so much selling of goods, all of which look alike. Some of the stalls say “Made in Italy” but I was skeptical. Still, what do I know? Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. I can’t add anything to my luggage anyway, so I just look and enjoy the colors!

We saw the “market” although on Sunday the lower, real market isn’t open. The upper market features a ton of places to buy a bite to eat. It wasn’t very crowded and had we not just eaten we would have taken advantage of that. Come to find out there are good things about a hotel provided breakfast, but there is also a downside: you can’t have a breakfast elsewhere, unless you are willing to “lose” the free breakfast.

From there it was more ambling, and we ended up away from the center of the city and it was much quieter and very enjoyable.

We headed back to the craziness of the tourist area, and decided we needed to find lunch. Of course that means looking at a number of places and not finding something right away. But we eventually settled on a place, ordered salads and an Aperol spritz each. A group of musicians passed by and since we took photos we gave the trumpet player a euro. I hope he uses it for lessons as he was painful to listen to!

Prior to lunch:

At that point we decided it would be nice to rest up in our room. We turned right from the restaurant and walked a bit before we opted to look at a map. Turns out the restaurant was on the same street as our hotel and quite close to it. HAH! It is very doubtful I’ll ever really figure this city out and will get lost any time I head out the door! Shoot, I even get rather befuddled going from the street to our room, there are so many stairs, and twists and turns.

From the rest up time we decided to go over the Ponte Vecchio and investigate the other side. I’m not a jewelry sort, so we didn’t stop on the bridge to look at things at all. As we walk we have to dodge the sellers of various “art” (we noticed they all have the same eight pieces, which they put on the street. Does anyone buy this stuff?!), and various other things of no interest to us (or most anyone else, it seems). As always we just walked randomly … we are good at our random walks.

Then back over a different, much less crowded bridge…

and we opted to find a spot for dinner. We had seen a place prior to crossing the Ponte Vecchio that we had gone to with my sister some years back, so we decided to give it a go. Sure enough, we could eat in the back “garden” (since when is the fake grass they use for things like this called a garden, I wonder?) and had a very tasty dinner. (As it turns out, this is NOT under the same ownership as it was when we were here years ago: I think the food is actually better … and it’s definitely more expensive.)

Back to our hotel we went …

And now we are back in our room, a bit on the early side. We are going to try and wake up earlier tomorrow and see if we can get into the Duomo cathedral (no tickets for that part). Then we might go to the places at the Duomo for which we did have to purchase tickets … but NO bell tower or dome for this one. I’m not up for more heights, and we both agreed we could skip the stairs here in Florence.

Buona notte!

Side note: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but all the images I post here are iPhone shots that I do not work on at all, and I reduce them so they load more quickly. I hope no one was expecting great art, because you sure aren’t getting it!

Second side note: We’ve now been out for over a month. This all seems to be going so fast.

Final Full Day In Milan

Posted on July 28, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

After a nice breakfast at our hotel (Note: I NEVER eat breakfast at home, but how can I resist these lovely breakfasts they have here?) …

we set off to take our scheduled La Scala tour. What fun that was! Unfortunately touring this time of year means things are being worked on, and there are no performances in the hall. (I’m hopeful that the next time we do a Big Trip we go during “shoulder season” when things are less crowded and we can attend some performances.) Still, our tour guide was great and we really enjoyed the tour. I took a photo of the music stands … everyone gets a tray. How nice it would be not to have to cart my tray to all my jobs!

After the tour we also went through the museum right next door. I didn’t bother with photos there, aside from the one where the woman seems to be saying, “You want me to play it AGAIN?!” but it was fun to see things there.

From La Scala we wandered until we found a good lunch spot. Like yesterday we had a larger lunch.

Finally, we walked to the Castello Sforzesco. We walked around a bit, and then decided to go into the museums. I was more interested in things like the castle ceilings, to be honest, but still it was a nice time … air conditioning makes anything worthwhile sometimes! We did not see the most famous thing there, the Rondanini Pieta … simply couldn’t find it, even though a woman who was in one room (a “guard” of sorts) told me in Italian where to go. I followed where she pointed, but I must have gone the wrong way at some point. Ah well. We can’t see everything!

We did have to go up high again, and one stairway was, for me, somewhat scary, but I just looked to the side where all I saw was a wall and the stairs and I was okay. I got to the top and clung to a wall while Dan took photos. Then a woman came up and was loudly proclaiming something to her son. She tried to say something to me but I explained I only spoke English. Her son came up and said, “She’s scared,” to me. I smiled and said, “Me too!” So we couldn’t speak much, but we sure could understand each other.

We did see the instrument museum as well, and as I was telling Dan, when you see great ancient or old art in a museum it’s one thing, but when you see ancient or old instruments you aren’t sure if you are looking at great instruments or just very old and useless things. I’m guessing many of the things we saw aren’t even playable. But it was fun to tour anyway, and I love seeing the old English horns.

Then back to our hotel for a bit of rest before we have another “light” dinner. (NO, this did not help me sleep last night. Such is life. I’ll survive.) which turned out not-so-light, but pretty delicious.

Tomorrow we have a train ride to take, so we will have another super breakfast, pack, and head to our next train station. We get to take a high speed train this time, while the next ones (I think four if not more), will be the regional. I’ve been warned that we can expect late starts and delays on those. We’ll see how it goes!

Ciao!

The Last Supper & Duomo Day

Posted on July 27, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

We had a nice breakfast at our hotel today: it was so inexpensive to add that to the cost that I went ahead and did it. And what a spread they have … and they make a nice cappuccino, too. Plus the people who work there are so very nice! Maybe I’ll remember to take a photo or two tomorrow.

After breakfast and a bit of time back in our room we headed a short walk away (I mean REALLY short!) for our scheduled viewing of The Last Supper. As we walked out to the courtyard of the lodging we not only saw the car that was there last night, but some larger vehicles were there as well. It must be a tight squeeze to get in! (The place vehicles enter is in the first photos below, and Dan is walking toward it.)

We weren’t exactly sure where to go to get the tickets we ordered, but it was fairly obvious once we got there — the Ticket Office sign was rather hard to miss. (The first image shows the door you take to get to the image. The second is the ticket office.)

We had paid for the 15 minute viewing (that’s all anyone gets) AND some time after that with a guide who would explain things. Little did we know that it would be in Italian! (I could have sworn it said it was in English. Oops.) Thankfully the guide asked several of us if we spoke Italian and when we said we didn’t she did explain some things in English as she went along. It was really helpful to hear more about the piece, and I would love to read more about it now. The 15 minutes goes by so quickly … you really have to focus to try and see everything. Thankfully we are allowed to take photos, but seeing it in person is best. Trust me.

Our appointment to visit the Duomo of Milan was also today, so after seeing The Last Supper we walked over to see the cathedral and more. The crowds at the Duomo were crazy, and the building itself is astounding.

We did arrive on the early side, so we ambled around for a bit and then had lunch. We opted for a larger lunch so that dinner would be smaller. I’m hoping this will mean I’ll sleep better.

The first thing our ticket said we were to do was take the lift to the rooftop. Of course I should know better than to attempt a rooftop, but part of me always thinks I will get more comfortable with heights. NOT SO! As always I was scared, and I had the pain I always have (yes, a physical pain) when I deal with heights. I didn’t realize the rooftop mean going around the entire thing, and that at one point we are walking the very center of the rooftop. EEK! Poor Dan had to take my hand in a few spots, or sometimes I grabbed his arm. But I did it. And I took photos for a while (by the time we were at the very highest spot we could walk I had packed up things because I was too freaked to do photography!). Here are a few iPhone shots, though, to prove I was there. Isn’t it amazing to see what they have on the rooftop? It’s really something else.

(I do hope readers realize that you can see the full images if you click on them!)

Next up was the inside. Much more comfortable for yours truly. There’s one area with three huge stained glass windows with tons of images that basically go through the entire Bible in pictures. I couldn’t get very good photos of those, though I did try and you can see one of the windows at the end of this next series.

Then we went down some stairs to the Archeological Area. Interesting, but not a good spot for photos. I took this one image of the baptismal spot, but it’s blurry and not so great. Still, shows I was there. I sort of marvel at how much higher the current city is compared to the older ones.

From there it was break and beer time, along with a light snack, but not for long. Next up was the Duomo Museum, and time was passing quickly so we knew we needed to get there or wait until tomorrow. Lots and lots of objects (sculptures and more), none of which I took the time to photograph. I think I was running out of steam. Or maybe I was all the way out already.

At that point we were ready to go back to our hotel, but first …

Don’t worry, Dan didn’t eat both of those! One of those really was mine!

And here I type in our room. I think we’ve opted to skip dinner, since the light snack and gelato were filling enough.

See you tomorrow!

Not Much More To Write

Posted on July 26, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

I won’t, in fact, even bother posting things to social media sites. But I’ll write here, just so I make a note of the rest of the day.

After a bit of rest, we went out to see what we could see, without really checking the map much. We first went to the patio of our lodging. The first photo shows our room, which is the window and balcony in the middle of the first image. Then you see a bit of the patio foliage, and the last image is of the hotel entryway. To get to our place we have to have a key to enter via a small door within a large door and I’ll have to take a photo of that before we leave. Turns out cars can park inside here, and Dan was rather amazed they could fit through the doors! (Again, a photo is needed!)

We walked a bit, and learned that in Italy (or at least in Milan) one has to be very careful crossing a street. Between vespas, bikes, and cars you might be taking your life into your hands! We were looking for a spot to get a light meal, and of course the first place we passed is where we wound up eating, but first we walked further and saw this interesting spot:

Dinner was just outside our lodging, which was nice and easy. We ordered pizzas (quite inexpensive). I assumed they were personal pizza size. Oops! We definitely could have shared.

Now to bed with us. Tomorrow we see The Last Supper as long as we can figure out where we get the tickets (NOT the same place you see the work). They are rather vague about addresses!

Buona notte!

Hello Italy!

Posted on July 26, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

Today was an early rising kind of day due to a 10:40 flight, and including an airport we had never gone to before. We caught a taxi (he was early but that is fine by me, as I’m always concerned about being late), and got to the airport much earlier than we expected. Security at the Barcelona airport was tighter than most places we’ve been so far, aside from Sagrada Familia and, I think — how have I already forgotten?! — one other spot here. But we got through just fine, and went to our gate.

As it turned out our flight took off about an hour later than scheduled. Kind of figures, don’t you think? I found it so interesting that not one person went up to the desk to ask why the flight was delayed or to complain. (I did suggest to Dan that I go do that … only joking to him, mind you!) We were on Singapore Airlines, and the plane was quite empty: most were boarding for the flight to Singapore in the next city.

Goodbye, Barcelona!

The flight was fine. Short. Easy. And the seats were awfully nice. Food was not great, though, and (ACK!) they played the same looped music over and over. THAT was pretty awful!

I had a window seat so I shot a few iPhone photos, both of the interior and then, of course, what I saw through my window.

Anyway, we made it to our next stop and, yes, we are in Italy. But where, you might wonder? Or maybe you don’t. I’m going to tell you anyway.

We’ve landed in MILAN. Now when you land “in” Milan you still have a train ride to get into the city, but that was easy enough. Funny story (kind of): a man asked if he could go in front of us because he was about to miss his train so we motioned him ahead. Well, HE made the train. We missed it and had to wait another 30 minutes. Heh.

Milan wasn’t a city we had really thought a lot about, as I read it was the bank and fashion capital. If you know me, you know I’m not considered a fashion kind of person, and banking? Forget it! But someone (thank you, Greg!) told me it wasn’t ALL about those things, plus it’s where we could fly from Barcelona without a lot of trouble, using a Star Alliance airline. So here we are!

Our place is nice — a bit of a step up from our 1 star hotel in Barcelona. (But truth be told, I’m realizing a 1 star isn’t the horrible thing I feared it would be, so I think I could consider those.)

We’ll rest up a bit and then head out to investigate our area. We are a walk away from The Last Supper and, thankfully, I read quite a while ago that I should order tickets ahead of time. The book suggested a month, but I checked things out much earlier than that and already there weren’t a lot of available times for us. I grabbed what I could, even though it meant paying a bit more for some sort of talk after. (There weren’t any time slots left for just viewing the work.) We will go tomorrow for our 15 minute appointment (Yes, that’s all they allow.) and talk.

But what else are we near? I’m really not sure! Sadly I didn’t do as much work as I should have before we left: I guess I ran out of steam. I did manage to purchase tickets to the Duomo, as well as La Scala just this morning. Of course we are here at the wrong time for performances (typical of our travels), but at least we get to see the hall.

I’m not sure if I’ll post more later tonight or not: it depends upon what we do and whether I take any photos. But Italy, we are happy to be here!

Our Final Barcelona Day

Posted on July 25, 2023 by patricia emerson mitchell

Time seems to go by so quickly — at least during the day! At night, when I can’t sleep, it’s a bit of a different story. This time I got up and shot an iPhone phot through our hotel window. I mean … why not?

In the morning we woke, headed upstairs for the coffee they said we could have — but were told the machine was broken. Oh well. Instead we headed to the market I wrote about earlier. It was pretty amazing and I totally forgot to take any photos. Oops!

Later we headed to another Gaudi sight, Park Güell. We learned after the fact that we took the long way with lots of stairs. At least we got our steps in! We spent a good amount of time there … loads to see, and tremendous views. Plus the playfulness was there … I just love Gaudi whimsy!

Then it was back to our hotel for a short rest before we headed to Sagrada Familia. And just WOW. I’ll not write more at the moment because we have to get to bed … we say goodbye to Spain in the morning and fly elsewhere! But I’ll share some iPhone shots.