Bye Bye Barcelona, Re-Bonjour France!!

David and I are both excited to be going back to France tomorrow, it is amazing how nice it is to be going back into a familiar country with a familiar language. The only downside is that our flight is at 6:20 in the morning so we will be out and about quite early tomorrow, around 4am it looks like. Unfortunately for us, it is also looking like it might rain almost every day while we are going to be biking in the Loire Valley. Yippee! We have decided that we will just buy some ponchos if necessary because we really have no other option at this point. Currently we are packed so that for our week in Normandie and the Loire we will both be living out of one backpack, which will certainly be a challenge but well worth the saved weight and bulkiness of another bag. But I'll keep you updated as the trip draws nearer. Tomorrow we might go see some of the beaches of Normandie, depending on if we have enough time, otherwise we will do that the morning after tomorrow before we head to Pontorson, where we will sleep before seeing the Mont Saint Michel.

To finish off our time in Barcelona David and I mostly just relaxed on the beach... (so yes, we are very, very tan) and also did some excursions to check out the touristic sights of the town. Here are some pictures to help tell the story:

This is a really fantastic Gothic cathedral that dominates the historic part of Barcelona. It is enormous! This is a view of the outside of the cathedral. Interesting fact: if you visit between 9am and 12:45pm or after 5:15pm, you get in free, but if you visit between 1pm and 5pm you have to pay 6E a person. Needless to say we chose to go in during the free times.

Here is a picture of the inside of the cathedral. Typical Gothic architecture, but by far one of the largest Gothic-style cathedrals that we have seen. 

David and I on the beach. It was actually very sunny but I think my camera over-compensated and so the sky looks a little overcast and the sand a little shadowy. I assure you it was not, as various patches of not-sun-screened skin (such as David's nose) can testify.

This is David and I in the Park Guell, names for a famous architect of Barcelona, so the park has many architectural wonders in it, such as this very long and wavy mosaic bench overlooking the city. You can also start to see that David and I are no longer white and could probably start applying for minority-requirement scholarships from Miami. 

This is also in the Park Guell and shows a cool cave/column/walkway thing. 

This is in another one of Barcelona's parks, one which is famous for this mammoth statue. I guess it was pretty cool. You could sit in his curled trunk to get your picture taken if you wanted.

This is a fountain in the same park as the mammoth. It was super ornate so we decided to get a picture with it. This park is also home to Barcelona's zoo, which we considered visiting, but when we learned that entrance to the zoo cost 17E each we decided that probably it was not worth it. 

Well I think that pretty much sums up our trip to Barcelona... we are off to vacation 4 of 5!! (I can't believe it!) Only 16 days until we leave for the good old U. S. of A. Woohoo!