Barcelona

here are some key things we did in Barcelona.

1. found the statue of Christopher Columbus
2. went to the very famous "Barcelona aquarium"
3. explored the amazing, Gaudi-built, la sangria da famila or church of the holy family
4. went shopping
5. met our awesome american friends
6. had a distinctly vegetarian dinner.
7. The dancing egg

Las Rumblas is the no.1 thing to do in Barcelona, which is surprising because its a walking street. Tourists flock down it and the buildings rise above you blocking out the sun. Its so crowded you cant say churros withought gasping. it amazingly has trees on it. It has the best shopping stores all down the street and the rent is higher then the sun powered, atom crushing, rocket fleet. At the end of Las Rumblas is a massive statue of Christopher Columbus in a giant soccer shirt.

 

 

 

 

 

The Aquarium:

The famous Mediterranean, Barcelona aquarium is a monument more then an aquarium. Its a pretty building in a nice location surrounded by cafes, restaurants, an Imax and walkways. Its on the Port right on the ocean.

 

 

 

Quick whale, swallow!

 

 

 

As you walk in there is a sea shell display. It was cool because you could see inside all of the shells. You could find out what lived inside of them and other information about the sealife. Some were very big.

 

They had some fish you wouldn't see at home, There was a tank of cuttlefish. The Cuttlefish can camouflage by changing colour - who knew? If they stop moving then they die because they need to have water flowing past their gills.

 

 

 

I can just imagine this guy saying, duuuuuuuuude

 

 

 

A forrest of eels greeted us in the next tank. My brother thought they were a monster until he saw that each one had a tail and a head to call its own. They look kind of like the hydra from the Greek myths. The Hydra had 7 heads and one body and if you cut off its head then another would grow back. We stayed and watched them for a while but they seemed to just glare at us like lil' grumpy Spanish fish so we moved on to the Shark tank.

 

 

 

 

The evil monster lies in wait

 

 

 

Not surprisingly, the shark tank had sharks in it. Not much to report from here - I guess we are lucky to have a large aquarium in Perth with a shark tank as well.

Next came the sea horses.

None had saddles on.

None had mermaids riding them.

Shame.

The sea horse is not anything like a horse really. It is tiny - about the size of a finger. It is not furry. It is not very smart and there are no sea horse races, at least not that I know of.

Here is a video from one of my favourite series. its called true facts about the seahorse. Its not as funny as true facts about the angler fish or the seapig but its still funny and also its true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

i forgot to mention the massive sun fish inside the shark tank. Its about as big as my dad but not as handsome (he made me write this). These fish can be up to 1000kg and are the heaviest bony fish known to man. Don't know why they are called sunfish - not yellow, dont look like the sun and don't emit light or heat. Its a weird looking fish. It has a stubby little tail which is out of proportion to the rest of this blob of a fish. Its not a kind of shark but its fin looks a bit like one. It gets around on its side flapping its fins back like a bird flaps its wings. Instead of gills, it has holes in its head which it uses instead of gills. This might mean it has to move its brain around the holes. Eww. Not sure why the sunfish was in with the sharks.

 

 

 

Hello grey hunk of meat, sup

 

 

 

 

 

Weeeeeee I'm riding a turtle

 

 

 

 

La Sagrada Familia

This Church is almost impossible to describe so first comes a picture to show you what we saw as we got near to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This famous Church was designed by Antonio Gaudi who was a brilliant Spanish architect. His designs are so unique that his work is often described as Gaudi-ism.

Gaudi lived until he was 76. When he started designing the Sagrida Familia he was not religious. By the time he finished, he was religious. Although he finished the design, more than a 100 years later, the building itself is still not fully complete. Gaudi was asked to hurry up and finish the church when he was in charge of its construction and he famously said " my client is in no hurry".

He was an artist who was seeking perfection and would not be rushed!

The church is magnificent. My favourite element of the church were the windows whose colours and shapes were all intricately designed to represent the four elements - fire, water, light and forrest. The stained glass pieces are all made with Venetian glass and some are left clear as Gaudi thought the light through them was perfect. He was obsessed with the correct amount of light and wrote - " not too much light nor too little light, both blind". I believe he got it perfect.

We took the lift to the top of the nativity facade tower and got a view of one side of Barcelona from the top. You couldn't see much of the facade from the inside and compared to the Duomo or St.Marks Square Peters basilica, the tower climb this time didn't have much to offer. From the outside the facade of the tower was intricate with tiny windows, multiple biblical statues and themes about the nativity time.

 

 

The spiral staircase down

 

 

When we left, we walked through a park, spent some time with a mega bubble blowing busker, scared some pigeons and then had traditional Spanish Paella in a little bar on the way back to our apartment. We used the placemats to make some paper planes which got a bit of a workout on the way home.

 

 

Our friends from Virginia arrived today, their names are Predeep, Emily, Gradie and Tilda.

 

 

 

 

 

Tilda's 4 and Gradie is 6. We are having a great time with them.

 

 

Playing in the fields.

 

Missing you everyone

of to France next!

Zoe

P.S

My favorite dance I saw in Barcelona wasn't performed by a human but by a egg

 

 

Insert video

 

 

Me o happy me