lovely barcelona

Well, I've got over 200 pictures, but so many would bore you, I'm sure, being details of this and that. Still, I must choose some to share, so I'll start with these.

Food was such a big part of this trip, and here is the most memorable meal of all, an incredible, delectable, fresh seafood melange (would be incomplete without the brewski, always delicious on tap) at La Boqueria, the huge market just off La Rambla, Barcelona's main drag:















And while we're at it, the mountains of food on display at La Boqueria were a feast for the eyes, particularly this stand of an unbelievable number of varieties of mushrooms:



Our second-best meal, and far more expensive than the first, was the requisite paella, seafood of course, at a white-linen restaurant down at Barcelona's Olympic Village area, by the new port -- served piping hot in the traditional paella dish:












and here on the pretty plate:















I'll post more Barcelona in a day or two, but for now here are a few taken on our bus trip on day two, to Montserrat and Sitges:

Montserrat, the town and monastery:















The awesome view from Montserrat:















And looking up into the cloud-shrouded mountains, there was a tiny cross peeping out, as if impossible to suppress -- very lovely, but I photoshopped it into a magen david -- (HA! crucify THAT, christian fundamentalists!) ... will post the original if there's any demand (I won't hold my breath).




And here is beautiful Sitges, the beach resort town that was sopping wet the day we visited, but I fell in love with it anyway.

This is one of the many side streets
leading down to the beach:




















And this is Sitges' endless coastline, with 17 separate beaches: