Shop Till We Drop!

Tuesday was the designated shopping day. We started gently with a walk down Gracia Avenue where beautiful houses line both sides of the street! Our first stop was a great little wine shop to get some wine for Wes & Marg and Laia & Alberto, all of whom helped make our trip to Barcelona a great experience. The shop owner was a true wine aficionado; unfortunately his knowledge was probably wasted on both us uncultured wine creatures! Armed with two great bottles of wine we went to our next destination; Cacao Sampaka(http://www.cacaosampaka.com)
Grigoria, surrounded by all the chocolate in the world, was in paradise! At the back of the shop there was a small café were we had some real hot chocolate (more like dessert than a drink) and a little something to eat.
After a bit of a rest and some cold drinks we decided to brave the heat and shops again and made it to Campers where we both stocked up on our Camper shoes! Armed with our rapidly multiplying shopping bags we returned to our hotel dead tired and vowing never to go near a crowded shop again!
In the evening we met up with Laia and Alberto for our final Barcelona dinner and stroll in the city. We met them outside the Sagrada Familia, which looked beautiful at night, and we walked towards the hospital of La Santa Creu i San Pau. The hospital was finished in the 1930s and is the work of Montaner (he also built the amazing Palace of Catalan Music we saw on Friday). The building looks more like a mansion than a hospital and it is great to think that this is still very much in use as a general hospital.
Dinner with Laia and Alberto was, yet again, really nice and we finished it off with a cone of ice-cream and a stroll in the streets of Barcelona, truly one the best cities we've ever been.