Gaudi Gaudi and Montserrat

The ever reliable cab/tour driver turned up exactly on time and took us on our personal tour of Barcelona. First through the narrow cobbled streets of the old quarter (where we are staying) past the Cathedral and the Brandenburg style gate to the business area and onto La Famiglia Sagrada. LaFamiglia is the most grand and differently ornate cathedral designed and commenced by Gaudi but unfinished due to his death, then the Spanish Civil war (I think- must check), the World War and the cost of its completion. However now it is being worked on and getting closer to completion which is fantastic but it mean there are cranes everywhere which does interfere with ones possible photo angles. We walked around the perimeter of the building and then back to our reliable tour vehicle.
Next stop was Gaudi Park- it is actually called Park Guell as it was commissioned by Eusebi Güell who wanted to create a stylish park for Barcelona aristocracy. The park contains amazing stone structures, stunning tiling and fascinating buildings. There is a walkway supported by twisting rock pillars that seem to be growing out of the ground like tree trunks. It was photographers heaven trying to capture the shapes and colours.
But there was more to see in our tour so back in the car and off to Montserrat. The Benedictine Monk retreat at Montserrat offered some of the most spectacular mountain views of Catalunya. There is a holy grotto and our guide timed our trip so that we were there in time to hear the Montserrat Choir boys recital. There is no better way to admire the beauty of a church than to be there when the choir is singing. I had visited the monastery in 1980 and my memory of it included the black Madonna and really very little else so it was lovely to be able to admire the views yet again.
Despite the time of year it has been warm enough although on the mountains a long sleeved t-shirt and vest weren't quite enough.
Back in to town and the end of our tour, where our guide dropped us at the Picasso museum, at least at the end of the lane along which is the museum. We availed ourselves of the opportunity to try some gelati and strolled along the lane. Sue left us as she needed to get a little work done for one of her schools which had sought her help- so she headed back leaving us to stroll through the museum. Picasso is not my favourite artist I have to say although there are enough of his early works and some of his later work that I do like. I didn't particularly like his ceramics despite the fact that they said it marked a change in the way ceramics were done?!
The adventure continued after our sojourn at the gallery- we had to find our way back (without Sue our GPS) with a rather skimpy map. However we managed very well as luckily the "placa" we are staying in is one of the points of interest and we were able to find little blue tourist signs indicating our way.
We ended our day with.... tapas having strolled around our area doing a little shopping and some more photos.