Barcelona Free Day

\We are in Barcelona only one full day before our flight to Israel, and what do you know, I planned it so that our one full day was on a monday, the day all the museums are closed.  It was a major bummer not to be able to take the funicular to Montjuic to see the Fundacion Miro (Museum of Joan Miro, a quintessential Catalan artist), or the Picasso Museum, or any of the others.   So we went to Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia for a tour - which turned out to be a very good decision.
It was incredibly hot outside, and reverently cool inside, but with millions of tourists, we were on different sections of our audio tours.  I took my sketchbook and sat in the "meditation/prayer" area to sketch and contemplate life.   That worked out pretty well.  Turns out Richard sat in the same area to doze off for a while.   I ran into two gals who were on the ride; it seemed so long ago.  They were in town one extra day - to see the museums that we would be missing.  :-/

Sketching bits and pieces from the meditation/prayer area

After Sagrada Familia, we were exhausted, it was hot and humid.  We sat on a park bench and Richard checked Yelp for a good non-Catalan restaurant nearby.  He found a vegetarian restaurant called Arc Iris just two blocks away.  It was fabulous!   I do plan to add it to Yelp once I figure out how to do that.    The gazpacho, pesto pasta, and watermelon were outstanding and healthy!   See menu below..

Peter is the owner.  We told him this was our favorite restaurant so far in Barcelona
and that we would give him a good review.   He doesn't (yet) know from Yelp, but he will.

Richard took the Metro with me to Cathedral Square, and then he went back to the Sofia to catch a nap, and I did a little wandering around on my own, and of course some shopping.   I bought a Barcelona cookbook for Susanne because she loves the other white meat.

Once back on the Diagonal, we had dinner at the nearby pizzeria; gnocchi at sunset.   Breakfast the next day in the hotel was edging on as opulent as the Israeli breakfasts we are getting ready for..