Barcelona

What a beautiful city Barcelona was!  There was so much beautiful architecture! 

 One of the most famous buildings there was La Sagrada Familia: 

a marvelous cathedral that has been in construction since 1882!  The expected completion date is 2026 but who knows!  It is only completed a little at a time using private funds that come and go.

The architect, Antoni Gaudi, liked to base his works on things in nature such as caves, sand, animals, and fruit.  The picture below shows Christ nativity.  You can kind of see how the background resembles a sand castle.

As you can see, they have been working on this building a long time.

Very much unlike any church building I've seen!

Mansions were everywhere and most have been converted to dwellings or office buildings.

Parc Guell: also designed by Gaudi

This place was amazing.  So much color, so many arches, you should go to the wikipedia page to see more pictures of it.

 There were these funny pockets in the wall that people were getting into and taking pictures so David got in one and tried to be a fountain.

You can see the cave design here.

 Do you see the birds in the tree?

The park had a view of the whole city.  You can see La Sagrada Familia in the background.

Since it was Sunday, we went to church, for a few minutes at least, even though it was a catholic church, we figured it was ok because we didn't understand what they were saying anyway. :)

Here is a gate designed by Gaudi.  It looks like a dragon and the tour guide said that the dragon moves when the gate is opened, or at least it used to.

I thought this was funny, an ancient palace now turned into Coke and Danon office buildings.

We kept seeing these all over the city so I had to get a picture of one! Did any of you see that episode? 

 Not quite sure what this is but we saw it and had to take a picture.

Another beautiful building with roof tiles made to look like the scales of a dragon.

Way in the distance a castle on the hill.

After our tour, we went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub.  There was one on the roof and we got to have a good look at the city one more time.

Sicily

The land of my maternal ancestors!  I actually got to visit the place my family is from!  It's the reason we pick this particular cruise.  We knew we wanted one that visited Sicily.  And we got to save the best for last.  It was our last port before returning to the home port. 

We had a great guide named Angela, who was recommended by my aunts, or Zias, in Italian, when they went here the year before.  She was wonderful and gave us a great tour.

Our first stop was in Acireale, the capital of the province of Catania, where my mother's family is from.

These plants reminded me of Galveston.  They are all over the island.  I wonder who's idea it was to plant them there? (There is a large population of Sicilians in Galveston.)

The city was almost deserted.  It was early in the morning on Friday.

We visited the city park that overlooked the ocean.

Then, Angela took us for a traditional Sicilian breakfast at a corner shop.  Granita and a brioche----yum.  It's like eating ice cream with bread!  And I love ice cream!  (It's more like a sorbet, but same thing.) It comes from the Arabian influence found alot in Sicilian history and the brioche is a tie to their French heritage.  Sicily has had many other countries influence it's history and culture since it is out in the middle of the Mediterranean.  

A cute little street market.

Hooray, Acitrezza!  My grandfather's hometown!

Here is the town church, San Giovanni.  

San Giovanni is the patron saint of Acitrezza.  Every June 24 at Sacred Heart Church in Galveston, my family, along with the other Sicilians there, celebrate his holy day with a mass, parade, fireworks, and of course a wonderful meal of homemade Italian, or should I say, Sicilian, food.

We got to look through the church records to find information about my ancestors!  I've never seen so many Patanes in my life!  I also saw the last names of all my distant cousins that live in Galveston.  It seemed like everyone left Acitrezza and moved to Galveston.  I wonder who was left?

This painting shows the priest that performed many of the christenings, marriages, etc, for my family a long time ago.  His name was in the records right next to my great-grandfather's christening.

This is a picture in the church of the shoreline of Acitrezza 50 years ago.  This is probably what it looked like when my grandfather lived here!

Acitrezza shore now:

The story is, when Odysseus was on the Cyclops' island, he was in Sicily, and not only Sicily, but Acitrezza.  After Odysseus blinded the Cyclops and was trying to get away in his boat, the Cyclops threw huge boulders at him, trying to sink his boat.  The rocks you see here are the same rocks that Cyclops threw at Odysseus. At least, that's how the story goes. 

Mt. Etna was erupting while we were there but the lava flow was on the other side of the mountain.

We visited the beautiful town of Taormina, which in Greek means Tower Mountain.  The city was like a tower on the mountain.

You can see Mt. Etna erupting in the distance.

A beautiful view from the city.

High on the mountain was an old monastery. 

Citrus fruit and almonds are a main export for Sicily.

We got to see a wedding procession while we were there!

Angela then took us to an old convent that has been converted to a ritzy hotel.  It isn't normally open to tourists, but Angela knew the people who worked there.

This is a view of Taormina.  Far in the distance you can see the old Greek Theater.

It was so lush and beautiful there.

There was this little island on the shore by Taormina that had a old mansion on it.  What a beautiful place to live! The beach was open to the public, but Angela told us that soon people would have to pay because the island and the mansion would be turned into a museum.  

I am so happy that I got to visit Sicily.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!