Day 17 - Barcelona


We took an early flight from Ibiza to Barcelona and met up with a tour of La Sagrada Familia, a giant Basilica that has been under construction since 1882.  It is Antoni Gaudi's most famous work in Barcelona and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


We visited La Sagrada Familia 12 years ago and the stained glass windows that flood the temple with beautiful light were not there at that time.  So much has been done yet there is still so much to be done before completion of this magnificent church.


After walking around Barcelona, Ralph, Donna, Gerry and I went to a very special dinner at a restaurant named Uma.  They only serve 12 people and the dishes were paired with wine.  Each of our 11 courses were amazing.  What a way to end this journey in Spain!



Remember the bowl?


The cork bowl made it home safely.  This beautiful piece of art is in our Dining Room as a special reminder of our 44th Anniversary and of this wonderful trip!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9 - Transfer to Catalonia

Image
Sunday was a travel day.  After breakfast at 6:00 am we left our hotel to go to the train station in Seville.  We boarded the Renfe, or fast train (200 mph) for the 5 1/2 hour trip to Barcelona.  After a short layover at the Barcelona train station we transferred to another fast train (120 mph) to take us to Girona. We rested at the hotel, went to the pool and then to dinner in the small town of Monells where we were given the 10 Commandments of Wine at dinner.                The Ten Commandments of Wine I.  You'll love the wine above all things. II.  Swear to drink it in the summer and the winter. III.  Sanctify wineries. IV.  Honor thy red and thy white. V.  Do not have a snack with less than 3 liters. VI.  May it never it be your destiny to mix water and wine. VII.  Do not steal a bottle or wine bag that is empty or broken. VIII.  Never mutter or lie with...
Read more

Day 14 Through 16 - Ibiza

Image
The four of us flew to Ibiza for a few days.  We had arranged transport through the hotel along with a bottle of Cava that we shared outside.  Although our hotel facility was very nice, the rooms were excruciatingly small.  The folks in the room next to ours had their luggage on their balcony because of the limited space in the room!  The four of us had to share wine we had bought from Ramos-Paul while sitting on our bed - there was no other place in the room to sit and the hotel would not let us drink it on the rooftop or by the pool because we had not bought it from them. Our first day in Ibiza we all slept in a bit and stayed at the hotel pool, napped, and walked to dinner. The next day we rented a car and cruised around the island.  We went to a funky beachside restaurant for lunch and walked the beach in a small cove. Ibiza beaches are beautiful and the sunbathers are frequently topless or nude.  Funny how it is just seemed natural. ...
Read more

Day 3 - Madrid to Caceres

Image
We started off this morning with a great breakfast in the beautiful courtyard at the Hotel Orfila in Madrid. Soon after breakfast we were picked up by our Bark to Bottle tour guides and went to two other hotels to pick up the other members of the group. Bark to Bottle offers four tours a year for a minimum of eight and a maximum of 10 people on each tour. This is only the second year that the tour has been offered. We have eight in our group - a mother and daughter from Texas (Winnie and Shirley), a couple from California (Tom and Leslie), Ralph and Donna and us. We also have two guides - Patrick Spencer, the Executive Director of the Cork Forest Conservation Alliance located in Oregon, and Miguel Rollan, the owner of Two Birds One Stone Eco-Tourism located in Spain. That brings the total on the tour to ten. We began to get to know each other and learn about cork on our three hour drive from Madrid to the small town of Trujillo where we were served a wonderful Spanis...
Read more