More La Sagrada Familia pics

Here is the one with the crowds :-)

La Sagrada Familia

What a most amazing place that building is.  Even though I didn't go inside (I'm saving that inside visit for when Frances is here too, then we can go in together) can you see the enormous crowds queuing up to enter? Apparently that can be avoided by buying the ticket online (so I discovered on line when I was back home)

I have arrived in Spain

   Lunes 29/ 04/ 13....
 I am here in Cari & Rodoś apartment (built about 1939). Having come through a delightfully UNeventful airport to city transition & even using the metro ....(no pick pocketers & not even a single 'dodgy' soul in sight).

 One quickly learns not to wriggle on the loos in the airports . . . . like not even pick up a piece of tissue paper from the floor whilst sitting on the seat . . .  or suddenly you get the Bidet experience!!! They are All automatic flushers! I swear  . . . everyone must just get used to it because I don't think I managed a single loo visit without getting a BE,  some are more sensitive than others, I was VERY still on the one in Dubai . . . yet it caught me 3 times!!  Unless my loo's sensor was rigged up to a different loo?!
Cari & I found each other fairly easily. Barcelona initially looks a LOT like Auckland complete with rain, puddles uneven road surface, & those typical large blue & white signs hanging over the 5 - 6 lanes. I even saw people wearing Gumboots in the city center!! Adults not kids, not the perth type with grunt but the ones like Frances' gumboots the smoother sort .... & yes plain black too. (not city yuppy with bright colours)
One main difference I note from Barcelona to Auckland city is most of the shops have no over hang so there is no shelter from the rain & almost everyone has an umbrella. (a very dark skinned umbrella salesman met me as I stepped off the bus....though I noted he wasn't using one either)
Cyclists don't wear helmets here.
 I am dizzy & tired . . . & cold too, the floor here (3 stories up with no lift) is all tiled. Though it was certainly a pleasure to get some physical movement in after the 3 hours Auckland to Sydney, then 16 hours Sydney to Dubai & 6 & 1/2 hours from Dubai to Barcelona.
I loved reading all the signs  while I was sitting in the front seat of the bus 'tween the airport & Plaça de Cataluña. Partly cos I could understand most of them  . . . but partly to shake myself into the realization that this is NOT Auckland!!! :)
 The specific Catalan dialect is . . . certainly different, for common Spanish honey is Miel, but in Catalan it is Mel, & my first Spanish food here was at Carinaś table, it was "Pa anb Tomaquet" (there are NO spelling mistakes in that) . . . but common Spanish would have said "Pan con Tomate"  being bread with tomato cut in half & literally rubbed onto the bread then drizzled with olive oil & sprinkled with salt.
Just now I tried Yerba Mate!!(Which is an Argentinian traditional drink, Cari & Rodo are from Argentina)  It's a leaf dried & crushed with some of the sticks too . . . & then mixed to a thickish paste with cold or hot water in a small gourd or clay cup & sucked through a silver straw with a sieve type end on it.! Wow . . . what a strong flavor, not like anything Iǘe tried before. sorry about the spelling mistakes... partly Iḿ tired & partly the keys are in odd places on this key board & some of the normal ones do strange things :)
Sorry no photos as yet . . .  I am not  using my device yet & am yet to master photo exchange.

Loving you all