DAY 197 - Barcelona: #1 City in the World for Pickpockets

Oct 2 - "I'm on the Top of the World Lookin' Down on Creation"

The Guinardà Park is one of the Three Hills Park located at the top of Barcelona. We took most of the day walking to the top of the mountain and enjoying the beautiful sights of Barcelona, although it was a bit cloudy.

A fountain trickles down the hillside.

You can really see La Sagrada Familia from up here!

A good capture of the "Bullet".

Having fun with our "bunny ears."

Our host, Ivan, told us about Franco, (Hitler's friend), who went around shooting people who didn't agree with him.  Ivan's grandfather was nearly shot during WWII and most all of his friends were killed. 

Montjuïc is translated as "Jew Mountain" in medieval Catalan.  We saw "Franco's Castle" on top of it.

It served as a prison, often holding political prisoners. The castle was also the site of numerous executions. 

This place up here had been inhabited, but then it was taken over by military personnel in WWII.

Remnants of old tile in the dwellings

I love this OLD tree and its huge roots!

If only trees could talk.!

This guy was making a living by blowing HUGE colorful bubbles!

It was shortly after this photo that Rich set his fanny pack down beside him to take one more photo.  He felt something, but didn't look up for 5 - 10 seconds later.  By then, he noticed his pack (with camera case, cell phone, fruit, batteries, and a couple of other non-important items was GONE!!  We questioned people, looked all around, but to no avail.  Someone had been really sneaky.

Luckily, he didn't have anything really important in it, but was left feeling that he had really been invaded.  We were lucky nothing had happened for nearly 7 months, but in our last week, this had to happen.

The Catalans are great about re-cycling with colored dumpsters all over the city.

 BUT...why does it smell like GREY water all over the city? 

Ivan has a shirt exactly like Rich's...pretty crazy!

Patricia's story of how she escaped Uruguay during the Revolution in the '80's was really interesting.  Her father was one of the heads of the common people which the UN helped him to escape and give him asylum in Sweden.  She had a very interesting story of living in Sweden and how dangerous is was when she tried to go back in 2000 to visit.

We really got to know this wonderful couple!

We're off once more - this time to north western Spain - Santiago del Compostela.

DAY 196 - Wandering Onto a Nudist Beach!

Oct 1 - "Another Sun...Sun-Shiny Day"

Mar Bella Beach - Located close to the city centre of Barcelona, it is one of two nudist beaches in Barcelona and also has quite a large gay crowd frequenting it.  We took off from our host's house and walked and walked until we reached the Mediterranean Sea.  So beautiful as I looked out, but then I noticed a man taking a beach shower WITH NOTHING ON!!  Now, that's odd!  Then another guy is walking up to the showers with only his small towel in one hand.  What is this?

Thank goodness these people have swimsuits on!  YEAH!

 
We later found out that yes, indeed...this was a nudist beach and as we walked to try and find a normal beach, we came across MANY men - only men!  And, they, too, enjoyed the sun shiny day getting tn EVERYWHERE on their bodies.  EEK!  We settled down to a place where we seemed to be alone for a fantastic afternoon in the sun.  Perfect weather!  (Sorry...I don't do nude photos and especially for the blog!)

...and I'm most definitely keeping my clothes on!

 Windsurfing and Kiting!!  Of course Rich enjoyed watching this and was really wanting to get in and do it!  Most of them seemed to be beginners...and it wasn't very windy.

 

Wind kiting is getting popular all over the world.

What am I looking up for?

Maybe this is it - such a nice structure.

Catalans are VERY patriotic.

Maybe I was looking up at these beautiful structures - so much to see here in Barcelona!

 It's always fun to go grocery shopping and see all the strange foods and what is important in their diet, specific to their region. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Barcelona and it's been wonderful!  We'll talk about our hosts, their backgrounds, and some of the terrible wars and problems they had experienced.