{adventures abroad} spain: day five - last day in barcelona

day five of our trip was our last full day in barcelona, and there was lots to do! we grabbed coffee and breakfast to go and hopped on the metro to go to la sagrada familia.

gaudi's famous church was breathtaking, to say the very least. nothing could have prepared me for it. we entered at the passion facade, all stark and white and pointy, like bones and pain and sadness. the audio guide taught us about the symbolism and meaning that had been carefully built in to every single part of gaudi's church. we took the elevator up to the top of the passion facade, which was an accomplishment for me, considering my irrational and sometimes paralyzing fear of elevators, but how many times are you at the sagrada familia, right? so i took my chances, and it was more than worth it. incredible views of the city and of the rooftop details of the church awaited me when i got to the top... and so as was a crazy winding staircase adventure to get back down.

we continued our tour of the church, which took us around the nave and out to the nativity facade - the first and only part of the church that was finished before gaudi's death, in hopes of inspiring funding for its completion - swollen and alive with the joy and love of christ's birth.

from the sagrada familia, we hopped on a tourist bus and headed towards montjuic, a mountain overlooking the port of barcelona that is home to a joan miro museum, the '92 olympic stadium and an olympic sports museum, the catalan art museum, and an 18th-century castle. our destination was the castle at the top of montjuic. we accidentally got off at the wrong stop, so we had to hike a bit to get to it. our mistake took us through a lovely botanical garden area, up an ivy-covered staircase and along secret garden pathways.

we ate lunch in the cobblestoned inner courtyard of the castle, and then headed up to the roof to admire the view of the port below. it was a beautiful sunny day, a little windy up at the top of the mountain, but it was clear and perfect for looking out at the boats on the blue mediterranean. a man in one of the gardens below was feeding the dozen or so feral cats that lived there.
i, of course, was incredibly jealous (and missing my own cats) and decided that i wanted to go down and be loved by the kitties. sadly we learned that these were not the kind of cats that like to be petted so much.

{looks just like our little one!}

wandering our way back down the mountain, we went through more garden areas and past a pretty fountain. since we didn't really know where we were going anyway, we took our chances and went exploring. we ended up finding a zip-line type swing in a garden and {because who can resist a zip-line swing?} we spent a decent amount of time zipping back and forth between platforms and acting like kids {or idiots?}.

the funicular took us from the middle of the mountain back to the metro station. when we got back to the hotel we gathered up our dirty smelly clothes for a trip to the laundromat. the wash'n'dry was located off of the rambla, down the street from palau guell. not the most exciting way to spend an afternoon in spain, but {believe me} it was necessary!

on the way back to the hotel, we stopped at barcelona's h&m flagship store... it was incredible - ginormous and beautiful and full of fantastic clothes that i was sadly too tired to shop for.

in the end we were too tired for most anything. we grabbed a couple of salads to go and ate them in the hotel room while packing our bags for our next adventure: madrid!