Sagrada Familia

So to finish up on yesterday, we had flown out of Britain to France and following a lovely meet up on Narbonne beach we took the train into Spain. 

Within an hour of arriving in Barcelona my iPhone and my bank cards and my cash and my driving licence and even the parking ticket for our car back in Bristol was gone! We all know about pickpockets, but even knowing doesn’t protect you. Even zipped pockets don't protect you.

With hindsight we realise now we were targeted as soon as we got off the train. Barcelona central station isn't tourist friendly, and we wandered around looking for the Metro (which was eventually found hidden behind a newspaper stand), then took the stairs down and looked for a ticket machine.

At this point we were 'assisted' by a lovely middle aged lady. We think she was able to see my concealed entry as I put the PIN in to the machine, and probably had my wallet and phone away within seconds of my ticket purchase. I do remember zipping up the pocket I put it all back into...

Then it was an interminable walk to the police station, and two hours of form filling in to get a crime reference. By the time we got to the hotel and were able to stop all the cards they'd had a good go at the cash machines and got about £600 out. Probably should have prioritised getting to the hotel to stop the cards, but we didn't realise the police report was going to be an all night event.

Anyway, mostly all insured. Today we visited the “almost complete any year now” Sagrada Familia. Wow. We’d been here many years ago and got into the crypt for free but didn’t go in the main church. And of course much of it wasn’t here then either. Beautiful, and almost pagan in the design of the tree like columns and colours. 

Rainbows everywhere from the sunlight though the stained glass windows. The ultra wide, heavy though it is, proved essential and I hope I’ve conveyed some of the wonder in this shot. If you visit, definitely go early or late, because at noon all these colours drain away. 

And in the evening, using my second ride everything ticket (!) we went to see the main harbour area at Barcelonetta. Lots of hugely expensive gin palaces, but also very good waterside food.

Backblip 1 of 21. Do go check out the others using the tag #incredibacks19. And all the photos will be on Flickr eventually.