I had no match today for some reason. I haven’t quite figured out the scheduling, but some players have two days off. Anyway, I practiced for a couple of hours in the morning, and it was warm, but not too hot. The warmer it gets, the windier it gets, which keeps it, at least this week, from being oppressive.

In the afternoon, I toured on the “hop on hop off” tourist bus, which is exactly what you would think, you can get off at any of the many sites the bus goes to and look around and then get back on and go to the next site. I chose the blue line because it picks up near my hotel, at the royal palace, and went by the Basilica do la Sacrada Familia, this project which has been going on for over half a century. The church is expected to be completed in 2020. I thought about going inside, but it was afternoon, and the lines were very long, so I took photos of the exterior, which is amazing enough, the detail is incredible. The most popular stop was at Camp Nou, where the Barcelona soccer team plays. It’s huge and the expensive team merchandise was doing a seemingly brisk business.

It was nice to get an overall look at the northern part of Barcelona. The older buildings all have French style balconies, mostly of iron, very small but attractive. There is a “Barcelona Style” in the old buildings, lots of detail around the windows and balconies, plaster facades, beautiful buildings overall. There are also lots of trees in the plazas and streets, and an unbelievable number of motorcycles, most of which seem to be parked in the area between the sidewalk and bike lanes.