Barcelona and La Sagrada Familia

Barcelona to Blanes

Day 22 - Monday - July 4
"City bikes" are an integral component of Barcelona's transportation system.   The  bikes and  the velo stations are regularly maintained.  Vans are used to redistribute the bikes to the various stations.

The the line of people waiting for the  Sagrada Famila Cathedral to open already wrapped around the building 45 minutes  before opening time.  The cathedral was designed by Antoni Gaudi,and construction began 1882.  It is expected to be completed 2026.

All cathedrals are pretty impressive, but this one is spectacular.  

The Choir Loft!

The inside has been completed and the sanctuary was consecrated last November. The remaining work is on the exterior and finishing the stain glass windows.

Looking up at the ceiling.

View of Barcelona from one of the cathedral's towers. We took the elevator up.

That's Donna looking inside the cathedral tower as we walked down the stairs.

The steep spiral staircase inside the tower is a challenge with trifocals.

Donna wired for sound.  We were actually participating in a very interesting tour of the  Sagrada Familia.   The headphones allowed us to hear the tour guide who could talk at normal volume even with a large crowd around her.

This bull-fighting ring was on the walk back to the hotel.

At the post office in Barcelona mailing our supply  box  to Paris. We had to take a number.

We did get to watch snatches of the Tour de France, as opportunities presented  themselves. It had started on Saturday so this was Stage 3.

Barcelona was a busy place, especially when it started to come to life around 5:00 PM.

Day 23 - Tuesday - July 5
We are on the road again. We checked out bike paths/routes last night so that we could get out of town a lot faster than we came in.

This young woman just rode in circles until the light turned green.

Almost out of town but not done with really tall, unique buildings.

While crossing this bridge we gave our spare bus passes to an elderly gentleman sitting admiring the view.  He was quite surprised but very gracious as well.

A little heavy industry on the way out of town but still a nice bikeway.

Our home for the night at a campground in Blanes. No grass but it was relatively quiet and  spacious. We had tried to stay in Tordera which was about 5 miles inland but the town had no hotels or campgrounds at all because they are all on the coast.

Typical "annual pitches". The people pay for the whole year and just leave their trailers there. Some of them are quite elaborate set-ups.