Barcelona, Spain (July 11th)

After dropping my aunts off at the airport early Saturday morning, K proceeded to come home and get the remaining family (my parents, his parents, and the kids) to fly to Barcelona. We only had a short visit as we embarked on the Mediterranean cruise the very next day.

Antoni Gaudi worked on the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) from 1883 to 1926, and it remains unfinished today. According to the handout, the inside is to be completed in 2010, and the exterior by 2030. I hate to be a pessimist, but I personally don't see the end in sight. If by chance it does happen by then, I thought it would be neat for my children to return as adults and compare these pictures with the finished product. The inside of the Sagrada Familia (below).
The picture below is the more recent additions to the church by other artists since Gaudi's death.

Right in front of the Columbus Monument is where the kids posed for these pictures, which is the end of the Ramblas (the entertaining walkway).

We strolled down it visiting the markets set up around the area looking to find some dinner and start our people watching when we witnessed something that bugged our eyes out. This is when we saw the Naked Barcelona Man. Not only him, but the front of him, which stops people in their tracks. Supposedly he's famous and well known around town. I described him earlier in another post, but I'll fill you in again (just a little) in case you didn't see it. He is completely decked out in only his birthday suit except for some underwear tattooed onto his body with other various tattoos as well. I'm not sure if it's by nature or not, but he's well endowed - like halfway to his knees. (I have to watch my language in case any former 4th graders are reading this.) Even though I didn't point him out, my children had to witness this, which I do regret, but it's diversity for you! He came up later in a conversation and my son reminded us by saying, "Oh yeah, when we saw that guy's wiener?" Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. We decided the people watching could become pretty fascinating that evening! Fortunately we didn't witness anything else quite up to that standard.

Here's a picture of our meal of paella - rice with chicken and veggies.

Our group eating dinner while people watching.

Is this in the Guinness Book somewhere as being the world's largest vending machine? I couldn't believe the size of this thing! I guess lots of things are just bigger in Barcelona.