Thursday, the day we left Honolulu, was an incredibly busy day, and as usual, I crammed as much in as possible, starting in the early morning with an eye injection for my macular degeneration (which requires me to put drops in my eyes every 30 minutes for most of the day), having my housekeeper coming to clean, one last session of my Spanish conversation club, designing a postcard and updating the website for the next Early Music Hawaii concert, and teaching an organ lesson before getting on the plane. It took us 22 hours to reach Barcelona, with a 6 hour leg to Denver and a 4 hour layover, 3 hours to Newark plus a 2 hour layover, and 7 hours on to Barcelona.

As usual I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane but had organ music ear worms in my brain throughout the journey. We arrived early on Saturday morning in Barcelona, and because we couldn’t check into our lodging until 2 pm, at least we were able to drop our luggage off and walk around unencumbered in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful day, with clear blue skies.

Bill Potter and I are staying in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment right in the center of town, with two story ceilings, and guess what, within maybe an hour of exploring we found the Barcelona Cathedral and heard someone practicing Bach’s Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag, Bwv 629 from the Orgelbüchlein! As we looked around the cathedral, the amount of gold used was incredible, typical of Spanish churches. We even walked up to the tower of the Cathedral and took in the view from the roof.

The Cathedral Organ was built between 1537 and 1539 and the windchest covers are decorated with grisailles by Pedro Pablo Serafín “the Greek”. It was restored during 1985-1994 and organ recitals are held once a month. Unfortunately we’ll miss it this month because we’re leaving for Greece early on Tuesday morning, and the concert is on Tuesday night.

After a quick lunch, we had a guided tour of Park Guëll, designed by Antonio Gaudi, which shows his whimsical designs for a community park. I had to admit that by this time in the day, after not sleeping since Wednesday, I was like a dead woman walking! But I enjoyed it all the same, hoping I get some rest soon.

And tonight I got my wish for eating paella (yumm!), which we finished off with a stop at the gelato shop.