Someone to show around

We have had our first visitor. Michael Agzarian dropped in for the weekend from Sweden. It is hard to image how close the countries are. He did have to get a few flights but total flying time is less than flying across Australia.
So for a few days we did touristy things like go out to restaurants in the centre of Barcelona, shopping, ice creams on La Rambla, sculpture exhibitions, travel the metro, walk the old quarters, lunch in cafes, and generally take in the sights. It was nice to have someone besides us 3 to share things with.

Without any Spanish Michael managed to make himself understood surprisingly well, always getting what he wanted in the end – shopping for clothes, getting the markets to sell him fish even though they were shutting, internet connection , haircuts, and a taxi to meet him outside at 4.30am.

(I am writing this as I watch the soccer on TV and Ronaldiño who plays for Barcelona has just got sent off. The crowd is going wild.)

We visited a monastery in the mountains about an hour outside Barcelona called Montserrat. It was an amazing place with sheer rock outcrops in strange and striking shapes. There were a lot of people there as well as school groups filling in their last weeks before the long summer holidays start.

The cathedral was beautiful with a long queue of people waiting to touch the ‘Black Virgin’ statue. A choir of alter boys sang and then also a choir from Slovania sang too.

We walked up the mountain a bit but you could really spend a long time there walking and seeing the sights.