Barcelona - Day one

Saturday
Buenas dias! Yes that's right we finally arrived in Barcelona after a long wait at Liverpool airport and then an unusually long wait at Barcelona airport. Seems they forgot about us and there was no steps to let us off the plane.
Well we finally got outside and the heat hit us straight away. in the 30's and nice and humid. The hostel we were staying at was more like a cheapish hotel. Private room with bathroom, toilet and a little kitchen to cook our dinners... like we were going to be cooking on this trip. Here we are in the home of Tapas and Paella so me thinks we'll not be using that part of the room at all. We were staying about 100 meters away from Placa de Catalunya which is in the very heart of the city. Easy access to the tour bus we had booked as well as La Rambla which is a stretch of road that takes you straight to the beach.
Sunday
Up bright and early and we set off to find the starting point for the tour bus. As I said before it was really close to where we were staying. Our first stop was Sagrada Familia which is the cathedral started by Gaudi and which is expected to be completed in about 20 years. Really quite spectacular, we had a look around inside and then went up one of the bell towers for a pretty good view of Barcelona. We then went to Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. After a look around in the merchandise stop we moved on as we did not want to pay 13 euros each to go inside the stadium considering all we wanted to do was take 1 photo of the inside of the stadium, not to do the tour or check out the museum! Next stop on the bus tour was Tibidabo which is a mountain/hill overlooking Barcelona. From the bus stop we jumped on the blue tram which has been in operation for over 100 years, and from where the tram terminated we caught the funicular railway up to the top of the hill. Again some nice views over the city and the coast. The 2 main attractions up the top were the Sagrat Cor church and a super tacky amusement park - an interesting juxtaposition! We went up to the top of the church and had a wander about inside, and we didn't bother with any of the amusement park rides before heading back down the mountain again. After a brief stopover at our accommodation we set out for the evening, first to a German beer hall style tapas place (needless to say it was not what you would call authentic Spanish food, and overpriced to boot!) and then along the Gran Via which led us to Placa Espanya and the Magical Fountain. There were a lot of people there so we took a prime position at the top of the stairs in front of the Palau Nacional where we watched the display, one big fountain with cascades lining both sides of the street down to Placa Espanya. It was very spectacular! After the long walk back to Placa Catalunya we returned to our place and hit the hay - the end of a very long but very enjoyable day!