Barcelona beaches

It was another scorcher today so we decided to get going early - after breakfast we went on the cable car that runs from Montjuic hill (where we are staying) down to the waterfront area. There were incredible views from the cablecar, I have added an extra photo of one of the views. At the beach we hired e-bikes and spent the next 2 hours riding the length of the beach, from the W Hotel right to the other end of the beach. The beaches are endless and so clean, with crystal clear water too - the boys all stopped off to have a swim. This is a view across one of the beaches, in the distance you can see the Arts Hotel that was built for the Olympic games (and had financial difficulties but is now a flourishing 5 star hotel), and Frank Gehry's fish sculpture. We think that Barcelona is one of the best cities in Europe, and that it has the best beaches too - we are not wrong, as National Geographic voted Barcelona as having the best city beaches in the world (Cape Town came 2nd). I have added an extra of the sculpture next to the W Hotel.

We cycled from the beach up to La Rambla, but it was too busy with people and by now it was unbearably hot, at 30C. They have the most amazing mime artists there, we watched them for a while before cycling back to the bike hire shop to hand back our bikes.

After lunch we had tickets to visit the Sagrada Familia. This famous basilica is known for taking so long to build - it was started in 1892 and a year later the architect Antoni Gaudi got involved, transforming it into something unique with a mixture of his Gothic and Art Nouveau designs. He died in 1926 and the basilica is due for completion in 2026, 100 years after his death - having taken 144 years to complete. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and was consecrated by the pope in 2010. We last visited it about 12 years ago, and we could see progress!! It is very difficult to photograph as it stands on a busy street corner, and is so large,  but I managed to get a view of it from the park across the road (see extra).

Back home tomorrow morning - we are sad to leave Barcelona as there is still so much we want to see but we are pleased to be getting home to slightly cooler temperatures.