Our flight was from Denver to Atlanta to Barcelona. For the long flight to Barcelona we flew first class! Here are our seats for the 10 hr flight..

And this is the view forward from our seats. The seats recline all the way flat for a (very small) bed.

Finally, we arrived in Barcelona! We arrived early, dropped our luggage at the hotel and started exploring.

As expected, there are a LOT of other tourists. Luckily, we came in October – avoiding the insane summer crowds. Still, as we saw over our trip, it got busier everywhere as the day progressed.

This cathedral, Maria del Pi, was near the hotel so we walked by it every day. Since we arrived earlier in the morning, the crowds aren’t here quite yet.

They put SO much detail into everything they built way back then.

Our first official tickets were for the Barcelona Cathedral. So we wandered around for a while until the afternoon time of our tickets.

Around one corner, we found a cool clock! This nook had different clocks from different time-periods up on the walls, too.

One of the many butcher shops we saw in Spain. Iberian ham (“jamon”) is a specialty you can get all over Spain. There are different “grades” which are aged different amounts of time. We tried several different grades. Yum!

This bakery was the first “patisseria” we stopped at in Spain. Needless to say, patisseries became a common stop for us every day! They make delicious croissants with a cream filling (similar to pudding). Another yum!

Ah… finally, we visited the Barcelona Cathedral. We visited a lot of cathedrals in Spain. They are all beautiful, each having their own special thing. Barcelona Cathedral was neat because we could go up on the roof without a tour. Here’s a grand view inside…

Here are the horribly uncomfortable looking seats for the choir. Who could sit there for an entire mass service? They have a tiny platform for your butt and the backs all have wood that would stick out into your back. Yikes!

We went up on to the roof…

As usual, there was a lot of detail in everything.

I’m not sure what this was for and why people put coins inside…

Back down off the roof and out to continue our walk around Barcelona.

Surprise!

We visited another cathedral – Maria Del Mar. 🙂 A beautiful interior with colorful stained glass windows.

We always like to look at the organs. Some are gigantic! This one was a “normal” size.

Finally, we wandered back to our hotel once our room was ready. It was a very nice room. Luckily, it had air-conditioning. While booking our trip, I learned that many of the hotels in Spain will switch their a/c over to heat once the cooler weather arrives. Since we were visiting in October, I had to make sure that a/c would still be turned on since it could have been cool or warm at that time. Wow, it was difficult to find hotels that would always have a/c!! Given the high humidity, it was a good thing we had a/c during our stay across Spain. And, of course, it was warmer than expected during our visit.

Anyway, here is our room…

The bathroom was extra fancy-looking.

Whew! After a very long flight with no sleep, then a full day as a tourist, we were ready to zonk out and get some sleep!

On to tomorrow!!