I had bought tickets online and we had a 10:30 date with The Sagrada Familia (Gaudi’s church), the most visited place in Barcelona.  It was a shock to me, coming around the corner, how immense and other worldly the whole structure is.  Like seeing the David for the first time, only less fathomable.  We waited on a short line to enter at the Nativity Door.  The audio tour was so helpful in filling in the details of this amazing place. It really is stunning inside, light and color, shape and design.  There were plenty of people though which, for me, distracted from the spiritual aspect.  I think Gaudi would have hated that. We exited through the Passion Door and stayed outside trying to absorb what we had just experienced.

We walked home on a different path just to see some new shops etc.  We stopped for a quick coffee, sitting outside on the street and trudged on.  We easily found the Mistral bakery where Teo said we had to try the Catalan bread and we got a loaf.  

Getting our negative Covid test documents to go home was on our minds, so we walked to the SynLab location and went inside to make an appointment for Monday morning.  I really wanted a salad and the woman at the lab recommended a place just down the street.  With my minimal Spanish, we ordered a salad to go and two vermouths to drink while we waited.  This one tasted much different than the day before, and we enjoyed it with a little bowl of small green olives.

Back at home we ate our terrific salad, the bread (nothing special, we decided) and the ham and cheese from the food tour.

We had a good rest.  At some point we heard music outside and looked out from our balcony to see a man entertaining on a big steel hoop while school kids and parents watched.  

Dinner was at L’arrosteria Xativa.  Xativa is a small town near Valencia.  I had made a reservation and it was a good thing because ours was the only available table.  We ordered a bottle of Cava and a small appetizer of three different croquettes as well as a different paella each.  Mine was Valencia style with chicken and some huge beans; Ken got the seafood with mussels, squid and large shrimp.  I loved how they served it in the cooking pan with a wooden spoon to scrape out the rice.  

We had a short walk home through this funky Gracia neighborhood.  A very satisfying day