Europe 2012: La Sagrada Familia

We left Trier on Saturday, driving 6 hours to Lyon for an overnight stop and then another 6 hours to Barcelona on Sunday. Subsequently, the whole weekend was a write-off, with no sightseeing, only driving. We arrived at the apartment block which was to be our home for the next 3 nights and rang reception as the touch screen to book in was not working. The lady was very nice, giving me instructions to get the key from the locked boxes [even ringing back constantly, as my stupid mobile kept dropping the signal] We parked the car, sorted out our luggage and apartment, then thought we would go for a walk. We looked at the keys and discovered that we had no key to the street door, so we had to ring the lady again and sort that out. Eventually, we went for a walk and found a shop for some food. [pasta with a jar of sauce for dinner, but we got the essentials; beer and coke. I already have a bottle of rum, bacardi reserve, they don't sell bundy].

We also discovered we had no wifi [problem with the router]With no wifi and only Spanish tv, poor Matthew had no excuses not to do his schoolwork. We've loaded textbooks on a USB drive and are getting him to do a chapter at a time. Amazing how many chapters you can get done when there's nothing else to do.

Monday, after a lazy start we headed off to see La Sagrada Familia [we had pre-booked tickets to avoid the queue and had to pick them up from a machine near the church]. After a minor heart attack, [the machine wasn't working, and we had to find another. Luckily, I'd made a mistake reading my watch and we still had an hour to find the machine and pick up the tickets], we bypassed the 3 hr queue and headed into the church.

WOW!!! Antonio Gaudi had designed the church and started work before his death in 1926. The work was continued by others [following his ideas] and is expected to be finished in approx. 18 years [about 2030]. When it is completed, it will have the tallest church spire in the world [500 ft]. Utterly amazing.