One of our best days! We caught the train to Montserrat and took a cable car ride to the top of the mountain to see the black virgin. When you enter the basilica the center is open air with a large circular tiled floor. People would stand at one end of the circle and remove their shoes and taking turns, would walk to the center of the circle and close their eyes and raise their arms up to the statue on the basilica (I think this is Christ). I did this as well but I’m not entirely sure what the history is here. Inside is the black virgin where newlyweds go to ask for a blessing on their marriage. We did this from a distance because the line to get up to the statue would have taken all day. Inside the basilica was beautiful. I can’t even begin to describe all the detail and hanging lanterns that lined the sides of the interior of the basilica. From here we hiked the walkway to the cross (Mirador de Saint Miguel), which was about a 30-minute walk from the basilica. The views from this point were incredible! It was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains loomed above us and the valley was beautiful scenery below. From Montserrat we took the train and subway to Parc Guell. Now a public park. This is where Gaudi intended to build a community of 60 dwellings. Only 2 houses were built and they are very unique. In addition to the 2 homes there is the wavy bench that is decorated with ceramic tile fragments and the lizard fountain that spits water. Before seeing the homes and the bench we climbed to the top of the park, which was several flights of stairs. Here we had a fabulous view of Barcelona. It was a great excursion and amazing to see some of Gaudi’s work. We definitely got in plenty of exercise today!!! We headed back to the metro stop Placa de Gracia, near our hotel. We were tired and hungry so we stopped at an outside café for a cerveca and some tapas as an accordion player serenaded us. We intended to go back out for dinner but we went back to the hotel, changed, went out for one more beer then decided to get some sleep. Long day, lots of culture, lots of walking and we saw some of the most wonderful scenery and architecture this day.