La Pedrera, Gaudi's last residential building

We'd got a 2-day ticket for the tourist bus, and today?s grand plan was to take the blue line route and go up to Montjuic. We actually kept to the plan on the whole, even though we?d already been on part of the route the previous day. This time we got off at another Gaudi landmark, La Pedrera, fully intending to go inside and have a look around. But the queue was too long for us, so the visit will have to wait until the next time.

We foolishly decided to walk along the bus route to the next stop. I'm sure it feels like just a short hop while actually aboard the bus, but it proved to be quite a trek along part of the unbelievably long Avenue Diagonal, at the end of which we simply had to stop for some liquid refreshment. We nursed a beer while the frenetic life of Barcelona went on all around us. Fortunately our chosen stopping point was a pleasant one, but it would have been even more pleasant if it had been a bit off the main traffic artery.

We eventually picked up the tourist bus again and continued on our Montjuic mission, passing by the Olympic stadium and so on and finally getting off at the Joan Miro Foundation. Our grand plan all along had been to get the cable car back down to the seafront, but we needed another pit stop before doing that, and stopped for this at Miramar, enjoying wonderful views over the city in all directions. We did the cable car thing, checked out the beach at Barceloneta (by which time it was 6.30), and had a pleasant enough meal on the waterfront. A final drink in Placa Reial brought our last night to an end.