Quaintness Personified...

One of the wonderful things you will immediately notice about Barcelona is that there is a natural quaintness where you can immediately get lost in the side-streets filled with little shops, cafes, and bars. On our first afternoon in the amazing city, we were given a tour downtown with Sabrina. Street peddlers, Street performers, Souveniors, Cafes where lovers smoke and drink wine, hot heat... We walked down the Plaza de Catalunya and were taken down a side street...

It curved around and then just opens up onto a plaza with the primary focus being this amazing Gothic Church with phenomenal carvings, windows, and huge doors...

I had also a wonderful tour partner. My friend, Jen Curran, who is currently in veternarian school in Scotland, flew in to meet us in Barcelona and join us for some much needed R-N-R. So, Jen joined the crew on this lap of exploring the city. So we grabbed a little gelato in this plaza area, took in the grandeur of this amazing church, got ourselves into a little personal conversation on our own, shed a few tears (more at a later time), and pulled ourselves together. Was very emotional for me to not only be in this wonderful city, but to be connecting once again with a wonderful friend, whom I don't get to see but maybe once a year, talking about some life changing ideas, was a little overwhelming, to say the least. Our friendship is one that no matter how long we are apart, when we are together, it is like we just pick up where we left off...I love those kinds of friendships. Facebook also helps us maintain what is going on in each other's lives...where were we years ago without this amazing feature??

Thank you, Jen for that moment outside the church... it is one I will never forget.

Look at us paying attention to the tour going on behind us...LOL!!!! Such great tour leaders, right??? :)