From July 21

We didn't have internet access on our night train, so we're posting our blog a day late. But here it is!

We got a late start this morning. We woke up at 10:00, got ready, ate breakfast, packed up, and checked out of our room. We left our luggage at our apartment for the day because we weren’t leaving Barcelona till this evening. We took the metro to the FCBarcelona stadium and museum. The stadium is called Camp Nou which means New Stadium. FCB is the futbol (soccer) team in Barcelona. FCB stands for futbol club Barcelona. The locals say that they are the best team in all of Europe! Even with a student discount, we paid more to get in than any other attraction so far. That made us think twice, but we decided to go for it. We have gone under our budget almost every day so far and this is Aaron's favorite team. We can't truly experience Europe without experiencing a little bit of futbol. The "tour" started with a 3D movie giving us a feel for what it is like to be at one of the FCB games. I say "tour" because there was no guide or anything, but they called it a tour. After that we walked through the stadium and saw things like the visiting teams' locker room, the chapel, the field (which they are redoing, so it was only dirt), the broadcasters and press room, the presidents' seat, and then the museum. The museum was a little overwhelming. They had trophies from all of the club's teams. Their teams ranged from handball to hockey to basketball and obviously their most proud, soccer. It had the whole history of the stadium and had artifacts from the soccer team dating back to 1899 when the team started. This part wasn't as interesting to Rachel or me. The tour ended in the FCB megastore. A two story shrine to FCB where everything is for sale. We couldn't resist buying Aaron a T-shirt.

Their slogan is "Mes que un club" which means "more than a club"

We rode the metro over to the next thing on our agenda, the Palau de Musica Catalanya. We stopped for lunch at a place that was remarkably similar to Sweet Tomatoes. It was nice to have something a little familiar, even if nobody there spoke English. When we got to the Palau, the English tour in a half hour was completely sold out. They wouldn't let us inside without being part of a tour, so we bought tickets to the Spanish tour in an hour. We stuck around and when the English tour started, we asked if we could join in. The guide said no problem. The tour started in a small recital hall. They showed a movie that highlighted the construction of the Palau and all the famous musicians and groups that have performed there. They explained that it was constructed strictly for amateur artists. It was meant to represent Catalan culture. When it was built, in 1905, the Industrial Revolution had begun and with it, the "Modernisma" movement. This movement created architecture with lots of mosaic and iron instead of the stone that was used before. It also focused on nature in opposition to the pollution and artificial characteristics of the Industrial Revolution. He took us inside the main hall and we sat down in the front few rows. It was beautiful. The most striking aspect was the roof. There was a giant stained glass window on the roof that sloped down like a big ball. It represented the sun and let in lots of light. Around the whole inside was more mosaic. There were statues of famous musicians (Beethoven to represent classical, a famous Catalan musician to represent Catalanya, and a scene from Ride of the Valkyries to represent modernity and the future. On stage were statues of muses playing all kinds of instruments. Their bodies and dresses were done in mosaic on the wall, and then their heads came out of the wall and were sculpted from stucco. Then, above the stage, was the organ. The pipes were arranged beautifully. Recently it was re-wired to be played remotely. Our tour guide played Bach's Organ Concerto (Phantom of the Opera). It was just amazing. The acoustics in the building are fabulous. We went upstairs to the balcony and he explained more about the movement that inspired this architect and the creation of the Palau. We would have loved to see a concert in it, but we just didn't have time. They have about 330 concerts a year, so almost one every day. In addition, the Palau is meant to be used during the day as well as at night. The many stained glass windows and huge window in the roof let in lots of light.

After the tour, we headed to Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona's busiest shopping street. It was packed with tourists. We peaked in Spain's big department store "El Corte Ingles" and Daniel bought some sunglasses. It's funny that many places in Barcelona seem to have more Americans or at least English-speakers than Spaniards. We enjoyed looking in all the stores and watching the people go by. Rachel couldn't resist stopping in a chocolate shop. We got a delicious piece of chocolate cake and two chocolate pieces for later.

We walked back to the main street, La Rambla, to get our bags and took the metro to the train station we came in to a few days earlier. It's called Barcelona Sants. When we got there, we still had over an hour before our train left. We couldn't find our train on any of the screens, so we looked in the shops to pass the time. We bought a little "picnic basket" with a sandwich, chips, and a drink for dinner. We sat down to wait, and looked at our ticket. Then we noticed that it said "Barcelona Franca". We were in Barcelona Sants! We scrambled to the customer service desk to ask them about it. She looked at it and told us that there was a train leaving from Platform 14 in 5 minutes for that station. So we ran over there and made it just in time. It was very scary! We got to Franca station about 30 minutes before our train was set to leave. We found our train car and got all settled. The room is much smaller than we expected, but it's fine. Our $300 ticket bought us breakfast in the dining car in the morning, and little toiletry kits with toothbrush and toothpaste, earplugs, razor and shaving cream, needle and thread, and a comb. So we are settled in for the night and excited to wake up tomorrow morning in beautiful Paris!