BARCELONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK ´I´m back to tell you what happened this past weekend. On Friday morning, we met at the park to leave for the big, beautiful city of Barcelona. As soon as we arrived, our first touring site was the Codorniu wine cellar where we again saw vineyards, wine caves (and LOTS of them!), and even a chandelier made out of green wine bottles! We even mounted a tram which took us around certain caves (and BOY was it like a Disneyland ride; Alexis you would have loved it!). I "stayed and tasted my first champagne" (against the wishes of Liesel's father in Sound of Music) and it tasted like the sparkling cider you drink around Christmastime, only it was bitter and lacked the marvelous apple flavor I always look forward to every year. Champagne is the main type of wine they make at the Codorniu. After the toast, we visited Parc Guelle, where the architecture looks just like the candy houses in Willy Wonka, Hansel and Gretel, and the kiddie game Candy Land. I found out that the last name of that particular architect was Gaudi, which is where I believe the adjective "gaudy" comes from to describe something that's way too much. And "too much" those houses were! The Sagrada Familia Cathedral was way over the top! It had steeples that were much too high and a facade that was much too wide with statues all over the place! I tried to get a quick picture of the impressive facade as the bus drove by it(we could not go inside; construction was underway) but it came out crooked. It will still look impressive to the eye, however. Speaking of statues, by the way, there were a couple people around the church wearing steel and copper coloured clothing and makeup that looked like the real thing! Since they were standing on pedestals, they looked like actual statues until I saw them move, which made me jump out of my skin! Armando took a picture of me with one of them and when you finally see it, you will NOT believe that the man I´m posing next to is an actual person! I also took a picture of a woman dressed as a copper statue of the Virgin Mary holding her child. We then toured a couple of art museums which illustrated the history of the Catalan region (where Barcelona is located) as well as some Picasso and Miro museums. The Miro museum was pretty silly because he believed that in order to be a good artist, you had to go "back to the basics" and paint like a child again. I even took some pictures of his childish works of art in front of which you will laugh to the point of not being able to stop! Unfortunately, no form of photography (including taking pictures without flash) was allowed in the Picasso or Catalan museums, so I bought some postcards of my favorite Picasso paintings. The funny thing about Picasso was that later on in life he was running out of ideas, so he started painting his own interpretations of previous paintings made by other artists. His own versions of Velasquez' Las Munecas were funny to look at since they look something like the characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas! The Seminary (which was actually a monastery) was beautiful because it looked something like the gardens of the Alhambra outside! Once I am able to download my pictures, they will definately tell you more of what I saw!