Day 6 Barcelona

Ok, this post is way overdue but I couldn't leave my trip blog unfinished. (Luckily I took notes.)

October 8th 2008: Our last full day in Barcelona. We slept in today because we were at the end of our trip and completely exhausted. It felt good to get a good nights sleep. I tell you, I get some of the best night's sleep when traveling! We started our day off with breakfast on the Ramblas. We ate a delicious english breakfast at Dibar cafe- located at the top of the Ramblas. After getting some much needed nourishment, we set out to find the Picasso Museum and do some shopping on the way. We found a really awesome knife shop on Carrer Ferran, where my brother and I bought some really cool knives. I got one for my hubby, not for me! After shopping, we made it to the Picasso Museum, which is located in the Barri Gotic. The Picasso Museum is composed of five palaces on the street carrer de Montcada. The museum takes you on a journey through Picasso's life, starting with his early work and ending with his later, the cubism style which he is so often known by. It cost 10 Euros to get in but only 6 Euros for students under 25. We had lunch at the museum because we had read in our guide book that the museum's cafe was quite good and cheap. Rick Steves' was right! I got a delicious ricotta and salmon salad with raspberry dressing for under 10 euros. After leaving the museum, we decided to explore more of Barcelona, while trying to find the nearest metro as well. We walked past the Museu de Zoologia, a natural history museum in Barcelona. Near this is the Arc de Triumph, which we walked through and was quite impressive, but not as impressive as Paris' Arc de Triumph! Finally we found the metro and took this to the Sagrada Familia again for a tour of the inside of the cathedral. This is one incredible building but a bit of a disappointment to tour. The cathedral is unfinished and probably will not be completed for another 50 years. However, you have to pay 10 Euros to enter and for the most part, you are viewing constructions workers, supplies, and dust. The ceilings are amazing and you can take an elevator ride to the top of the towers, but again this cost more money- another 2 euros. There is a small museum area (in the basement?) that you can tour and see some cool art and models of the cathedral. It started to rain so we took the metro back to our hotel to relax for a while. We wanted to save money -we were running out fast- so we ate at the McDonald's in Plaça de Catalunya- crazy right?! Here we could have been eating tapas or something cool and we chose McDonald's. However, sometimes you need comfort food to remind you of home.
After the rain subsided, we walked over to an outdoor market on Avinguda del Portal de l'Àngel, located just off Plaça de Catalunya. We didn't find too much, it wasn't a big market, but that is a cool street b/c it is a pedestrian-only . We ended the night by listening to a live band playing in Plaça de Catalunya- they were awesome and Philip and I are kicking ourselves that we didn't buy the cd.
We crashed for the night, wanting a goods night rest before a long day of traveling ahead.