Our Final Day in Barcelona

 Our final day in Barcelona started out strong. 

A traditional breakfast in Spain contains pastry's, meats, cheeses, cereal (that is not the same type of cereal we have in the states), and a candy "bar." We couldn't pass up a mimosa or the Coke in the bottle (since we had yet to find Diet Coke). 

We had limited time in Barcelona, so we decided to go the Picasso museum. 

What a great choice that was. What was the most amazing part was the evolution of his work. 

This is his first painting.

Obviously very different from his works in the later part of his career. 

Here's just a sample of what we saw.

I left the museum feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work we saw. This will become a common theme of trip.

We left the museum and started making our way back through the streets to our hotel and stumbled across the MOCO (Modern Art) museum. We didn't think we'd have time to see the whole thing, but I did get a great photo of a piece in their courtyard.

We continued on our walk, visited another church and headed to lunch (one last time to eat Tapas).

And for those of you who live in - or have visited - Chicago might recognize the artwork of Spanish artist Juame Plensa. His work is featured in Millennium Park, which is why this piece looked so familiar to Rachel and me. And, it was just sitting outside of the restaurant we had lunch at.

But back to our hotel to wait for our driver to take us to our next adventure. But before we left. Rachel ran to the ATM where she stumbled upon a convenience store (or what we would call it in the states) and found a DIET COKE. So, she got me two. Now for the punchline, these would be the only two DIET COKES we'd find on the trip. I didn't have another one until I arrived home at my apartment from the trip.

What struck me about Barcelona was how "modern" the city was. The architecture was a mix of old and new, but the style is much different from what I would find on the remaining part of the trip. The culture is vibrant, the food is even more vibrant, and the people were kind and welcoming.