Here’s my Mom – having a great trip!

Here’s the Olympic-sized swimming pool on the roof of our hotel. It was actually pretty cool. I had a hard time getting started one morning until I did a few laps in here.

Hey! What are yooze guyz doin’ over theah?

Yet another street musician.

I snapped this while we were waiting for a table one night. I think it looks pretty cool.

Flowers.

This building seemed pretty cool.

This was another marketplace we stopped buy.

First, here is a great shot of Hotel CRAM at night from the front.

Turtles! Get your turtles!

This is me a the Art Museum. I meant to set the timer to take a picture of the dome, but oops. I think its kind of cool.

Are you pondering what I’m pondering?

After this trip, I’m not sure I’d know what my Dad looks like without a video camera in his hand.

This Mammoth was one of the sculptures in the park near the Arc de Triomf. It looks even bigger with the little kid next to it.

I’m sure this poster of Frank Sinatra is pretty common, but I thought it was funny that it was hanging in the first bar I went into, considering its also hanging in a place on the other side of the Earth, right around the corner from where I live in Pacific Beach.

But first, breakfast. This ended up being one of our favorite places for breakfast.

They had amazing café con leche (coffee) – or so I’m told. I was the only one who isn’t addicted to cocaine…I mean caffeine.

With a good hearty breakfast in our bellies, we marched over to the Arc de Triomf.

The Arc itself was interesting, but the setting made it amazing.

South of the Arc was another park. It had several sculptures and beautiful shaded grass knolls.

It also had a pond in the middle with row boats for rent.

Ahh, the Mediterranean.

I guess this guy was too trusting of his friends and should not have fallen asleep. Jason, let this be a lesson to you…

Mom and Dad enjoying a relaxing lunch.

And the portions were very small, yet expensive. Every menu seemed to have the same basic set of options, such as mushrooms, olives, meats, cheeses, bread, and croquets and cost between €4 and 6 (about $6 to $9). There were a few exceptions.

Some places had the tapas out for people to look at, such as the place Mike and I went to see the Euro Cup finals.

Basically, we each ordered two or three and shared.

Overall, I was fairly dissapointed in the food Barcelona had to offer, but I guess no place is perfect.

I thought I got my wish. The 3G version, which just came out yesterday, is faster and has a whole host of new features, such as integration with Exchange for keeping your email, contacts, and calendar synchronized with your desktop and/or laptop. The enhancements are great and, in my opinion, the iPhone 3G is the best phone on the market today. It still has its problems, as noted by the Washinton Post.

So why am I not buying one? The answer is HTC. They have consistently put good products on the market. The only reason that none of their current products are better than the iPhone is because they have been limited by Windows Mobile. There solution is to create the HTC Touch, with their own OS, called TouchFLO™, that works in conjunction with Windows Mobile, sigificantly enhancing the entire experience. However, this device still lacks a hardware keyboard.

Enter my next phone, the HTC Touch Pro. With a hardware keyboard, 3G, touch screen, FM Radio, 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, and cappuccino maker, this device has everything that one could ask for, except maybe multitouch. By the way, this device is slated to hit the market in September, just in time for my birthday

The building itself was a work of art, with murals painted on the ceiling of each dome.

I’m not a huge fan of art, but there are some aspects that I can really appriciate. For example, I am blown away by the sheer technical skill required. Also, artists’ ability to create an infinate amount of colors by mixing different paints is very impressive.

I do like the way artists capture light. Its hard to tell from this photo, but the umbrella seemed to glow, eventhough its not possible.

I also like many of the perspectives and angles that the artists use.

Angles, perspective, and light.

His bird died…sad

The museum overlooked Barcelona and this huge fountain. The view was spectacular.

Hey, look a pufferfish! The Dean would be so excited.

Here’s a better picture of the Columbus statue.

Mom and I bought some souvenirs from local vendors and then we check out the mall. We decided to take the long way back to the hotel when we stumbled upon some cool things, like this submarine.

It is a replica of the acutal one build in 1862.

After the sub, we continued walking throught the streets of Barcelona looking for a gold ring for my mom. We weren’t able to find one, but we did find the Santa Maria De Mar.

After lunch, Mike and Mom went off to do their thing, while Dad and I checked out some ruins from Roman times. No photography was allowed, so I didn’t take any pictures inside. Here is a photo from outside.

The ruins were of an entire city block that was found when they started to dig the foundation for a building in Barcelona. It was really cool because they had put a catwalk about 5 feet above what used to be the ancient city. The audio guide describe what were were looking at and how it was used.

When we were done, we stumbled upon some more musicians.

And this recycling guy.

We bought beach towels and sunscreen before we went so now I have a souvenir towel, but not a sun burn. After three days of walking all over the city, it was very relazing to sit around and do nothing but soak in some sun. The sun was strong, but there was a cool breeze coming off the Mediterranean, which was perfect for being at the beach.

We ended up eating lunch at one of the little shops that were right where the boardwalk meets the sand. The shaded area with tables was wonderful.

I did take a few pictures on the walk to the beach.

On Monday, we went up to Montjuïc which is on top of a small mountain so we needed to take the gondola.

The ride was amazing. The gondola was set up so you could look straight down. It takes you up the side of the moutain, so you are never more than 40 to 60 meters off the ground, but it can still be unnerving. Even though you did not feel too high up, the views were spectacular. You could see all of Barcelona.

On top of Montjuïc is a fort that was amazing.

It was built to protect the harbor, which was massive and a sight to see all by itself.

Don’t f**k with us or else! Boom!

Surrounding the fort was a moat that has been turned into a garden.

The fort was called a castle, but other than a few parts like this, it didn’t really feel like one – at least not to me.

On our way home, we stumbled upon an amazing garden. We could have made an entire day out of exploring this place. The integration of architecture and plants was fantastic. It was peaceful and the day was perfect for relaxing under a tree.