Day 76: Church in Barcelona & the famous Ramblas Street (July 29):

     This morning, we wake up and find a church. It is a ward, and the largest one we have attended in all of Europe. There are three sets of missionaries and a missionary couple. There were at least 4 families of tourists stopping by because their cruise ship is ported in Barcelona. Benson even finds a picture of an old friend from Idaho Falls who had been a mission president in Barcelona.

   Back home we had a BIG home cooked meal! I really miss that.

   We take off to explore Barcelona! It is the first large, port town we have stayed in and it is pretty cool! It was a pretty town! I liked it!

  We parked in a parking garage, then we walked up the famous Ramblar street full of street performers and characters, and a Hard Rock Café! I bought a lucky anklet. 

    We looked at souvenirs, bought sunglasses, ice cream, waffles and crepes. We love to watch the street performers and artists. There is a spray paint artist who paints landscapes with spray paint and they are surprisingly good!

   We walk back to the parking garage to find that our tire is flat – which we find out later was slashed. While we are changing the tire, some obnoxious Spanish guy keeps coming up to us and trying to ask questions about his parking ticket – as if we don’t have enough going on! 

    We finish with the tire and try to leave the garage, only to discover that we can’t leave until we purchase another parking ticket and pay .80 more Euros to leave. When we get home, we realize that our diaper bag backpack is missing – ok,. This is getting old! So we drop the kids off and Benson and I drive back to the parking garage to see if we can find it. At the garage, there is no backpack, but that same Spanish man is still running around, pretending not to have a parking ticket, making phone calls and I’m sure slashing tires, and stealing diaper bags. HA! I would have loved to see his face when he went through all that work and opened the bag to see that all he made off with was a couple diapers, wipes and some tampons! Hope he enjoys them!

   Boy are we blessed, because until earlier that day, our wallet, with our last two credit cards had been kept in there. These experiences in Barcelona have made me realize how much the lord has helped us and protected us throughout these past three months!

   Back at the apartment, we played another game of Take II while watching the gymnastic Olympic team! Man they are good! Well, so much for a lucky anklet!