The drive to Barcelona took longer than I expect, even with using the toll road to the sum of NZD$50! As unbelievable as it sound – I didn’t get lost and found the rental car office to drop of our car without any trouble. It was a little comical at the rental car office giving away our food (although Karen did make me take back a box of chocolate chippie biscuits that I gave away too quickly). I got talking to the Goldcar shuttle driver and explained we wanted to go to the airport train station. Then I lined up to return the car and have the final inspection. However because I had paid for an extra insurance, it was a good sales person when we picked up the car, the shuttle driver ended up taking my keys and just handing them to the person behind the counter and they didn’t even want to look over the car. I am not so sure that was good thing but you just have to not worry about everything and make the most of short-cuts every now and again (did I say that?).

There we were at the train station, all four of us overloaded like old donkeys. I have no idea how we came to have so much stuff but we couldn’t fit another sock in our bags. We worked out our traveling process, me and Amy together and Daniel and Karen together then when the train arrived we struggled our way on board. I half expected alarms to ring saying our carriage was overloaded.! After about 4 stops on the train we switched over to the underground metro. I was so proud of Daniel and Amy carrying their packs and pulling their cases along and down the million stairs to the train. They did very well considering Daniel found it difficult to stand up with so much stuff and poor Amy got her face and pack slammed by the ticket gate door barrier. That was frightening for all of us but she managed to keep going. Finally we arrived at our metro, the Sagrada Familia station. Up the stairs this time, we were holding it together but for how long I didn’t know.

Surprisingly our apartment was only about 100 meters from the metro right in the middle of this fabulous district. When we first exited the metro there were crowds and crowds of people along the footpath gazing at the Basilica De La Sagrada Familia which is one of the most visited attractions in Barcelona.

The foundations for this church were laid in 1882 and it is still not completed! The chief architect was Antoni Gaudi whose hand print is all over Barcelona. Although not completed the church was dedicated in 2010 and now consists of 4500 m2 and 8000 people can worship at one time. The details of this church are fascinating but I will leave it to you to find out more, if you are interested see www.sagradafanilia.org.

And of course Gaudi strategically located the church next to the golden arch.