¡Mi hermana esta aqui!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early and off to a hotel downtown to meet up with my latest Canadian visitors! This was none other than my godfather, Doug Seegmiller, with his better half, Barb, and 3 sons, Thomas, Robbie, and Marcus. These guys were only in town for Saturday and Sunday, as Sunday night they left on a week long Mediterranean cruise. I actually hadn't seen any of them in a year or two, so it was great to catch up over a nice hotel breakfast [Thomas and Robbie haven't changed very much since last seeing them, but Marcus is at least a foot and a half taller, and now stands way above his older brothers!].

This group, although understandably jetlagged after arriving in BCN at noon on Friday, announced that I was their new tourguide for the day and would follow me anywhere, as long as I didn't go overboard on the amount of walking. I showed them how to use the metro system and we were off to Sagrada Familia first. After a quick trip up to the top of one of the towers via the lift (some of the group were a little uncomfortable at that height), we took the metro down to Barri Gotic to see the old cathedral. We wandered around this neighbourhood and over to El Borne. It was decided that the lineup for the Picasso Museum was a little too long considering the limited amount of time for touring, so we went to the Maria del Mar church instead. After a nice drink at a cafe patio we walked back into Barri Gotic and had lunch at a restaurant called Los Caracoles (famous for their snails). I'd heard about this very old spanish restaurant from many guide books and other visitors coming to see me, so it was great to finally have a chance to try it out. None of us were disappointed with our meals, and the atmosphere of this old place was very classic and traditional, like it hadn't changed at all over the last 100 years. Finally, after lunch we crossed over to the other side of La Rambla and walked around through the stalls of the main BCN openair market. I think seeing this place is a important experience for anyone visiting the city. I go there every chance that I get, and could probably spend forever walking between the stalls. The smells, sounds, and look of the different fresh seafood, fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, and spices, is amazing. Fresh figs are in prime season right now :) Doug and Barb then wouldn't let me leave until they'd stocked me up with lots of groceries to feed myself and my new guest for this week,....

Yes, that's right, the Wilson sisters are reunited for the next 10 days! Saturday night I went and picked up Katharine at the Barcelona airport!!! I felt like I was in a movie waiting for her to come through the gate. She was in fine form having just barely caught her flight leaving from London Stansted, mainly because she'd taken a tour of London with some people she'd met on the train into the city,... email her if you want the details of that adventure. Somehow, even though she's been working so hard this summer (haha), her tan is even darker than mine. When we got back to my flat the Sants festival behind my building was still in full swing so we went down to see what crazy events were taking place. I'm really glad that she got to see this festival, because it will probably be the least-touristy thing that she does during her stay. We were definitely the only foreigners (besides the other iaeste people that we met) dancing away to the spanish bands and drinking Caiprinihas in the middle of the street party.

Sunday morning it was cloudy and overcast in Barcelona, so we took the train from BCN to the next large city going south, called Tarragona. We were joined by my flatmates and Bartec's dad and sister who are also staying with us. The city beach is really nice and long, soft sand, and not very crowded. The water was the best that I've seen since arriving here; perfectly clear, clean, and cool. We stayed pretty much all day as there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and left around 7pm. While we'd planned to go out that night, we decided not to since we were both exhausted from too much sun.

On Monday while I was at work Kat got her first taste of the city as she toured around on her own. She managed to see La Rambla, the market, the cathedral, and the areas around the port. After work we met downtown and went and saw Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila (a.k.a. La Pedera), which I had yet to tour. After many pictures on the famous roof top of this popular house we made our way down Passaige de Gracia, did a little shopping, and went to the restaurant La Fonda for dinner. The food is always so good there. Here are some pictures of us at La Pedera.

Finally, I must include a huge thank-you to Doug and Barb for treating me to breakfast and lunch on Saturday. The fruit and seafood from the market was wonderful! Kat and I feasted! Those fresh figs were phenomenal :) You guys were a lot of fun to tour around with, and I hope that I didn't make you walk too much. It was great to see you all, especially on the otherside of the world. Bon Voyage!