At the end of the day, I was at the Sant Cugat train station, waiting for a train to take me back downtown to my hotel. I was tired. Sometimes the Sant Cugat train station reminds me of Philly. 

It was a glorious day. 

Naoto and Hana take a look at some of the wildflowers. They were in bloom everywhere up there. 

Tomone and Maya at the view point near the top of the "Telefriq".  

We even rented a rowboat. 

It's not a great photo, but it's interesting. This is the view out of the window of the train. If you look closely, you can see some proplr on the hiking trail, near the middle of the frame. 

The next day I went up to Valle de Nuria on the rack railway with my friends Naoto & Tomone and their kids. What a great refresher after Singapore. Mountain air and wide open spaces. 

The best part of the Labyrinthe park is just the peacefulness of the place. There are a lot of quiet park benches in shady places. I fell asleep on one for an hour. There were several other people taking naps around the park. 

I did make it to my midpoint destinatation for that day - the Jardin de Labyrinthe. A very worthwhile place to visit in Barcelona, but not on any of the tour guides for some reason. I've always wanted to try one of these mazes... and I think I discovered why they're not so popular. It was very frustrating. 

I took a bike ride one day on the "Carrer de Agua" (road of water) that used to be an aqueduct in the hills above Barcelona. It's cooler up there, and smells surprisingly piney. Something about it reminded me achingly of San Diego. In the distance you can see the Sagrada Familia, still under construction. That was my ultimate destination on this day, but I never made it. As per usual in Barcelona, I ended up meeting a bunch of people and going to do something else (like eating dinner in an outdoor cafe) instead. 

All over Barcelona there are little fenced in kiddie parks with various toys. This park was just near my metro stop. These steel bowls looked really interesting, and I just loved the look of joy on this kids face. 

I went with my friend Naoto and his family to see the musical fountain at Placa Espanya. It was pretty neat. I think that his daughter Maya really liked it, but it was late and she had a meltdown on the way home. 

A typical morning on my way to the metro, in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona 

Breakfast every day at Cappucino in front of the Jaume I Metro stop. I thought it would be great staying so close to this metro stop, but it turns out that in order to get to work I had to change twice -- and the interchanges require you to walk 3 like blocks in a steamy hot underground tunnel. It was quicker to just walk on the surface to Placa Catalunya. 

BARCELONA! Here's a picture of me on the balcony of my hotel room at "Hotel Banys Orientals". It's a nice looking hotel and the room was a pretty good price at 80 Euros, considering the location... but the room was really really small. I don't have a picture of the room because I couldn't fit my camera lens inside. Just kidding. But it was small. 

Clowning around with Dina in front of the Estrella house. When we went back to fix things up, I really was thinking we would sell the place. But after a day of yard work with our favorite neighbors pitching in, and a walk to the taco shop, and some fun in the pool. Well, now I'm not so sure we should sell it. 

Dina gets along pretty well with our good friend Neal. I also like thie photo because, magically, there are no fat 'mercans in the background. 

This is Mr. Goh. He runs the drinks stall at hawker stand where I go every day for lunch, and most days for breakfast as well. He makes a mean Kopi C.