We decided to make a leisurely start to our Sunday by attending the 11 am worship service at the International Church in Barcelona instead of the 9:30 am service. Before leaving home I googled "church services in English in Barcelona" and landed on the ICB. I knew based on their website it would be a lot more evangelical than this Presbyterian is used to, but I was also mesmerized by the preaching I heard from John and Audrey. Each week people from over 50 countries attend worship here. They take what is written in the scripture and give real life examples for how to apply it.
With only 90 minutes between services, there is not much turn around time. People wait outside for the current service to let out before entering the sanctuary. They have headsets for non-English speakers to make it easier for them to follow along. I forgot to ask if the translations were in Catalon or in Spanish.
Fearful of COVID we sat away from others and did not linger after worship. Don (a new member of our church's tech team) was in awe of their sound system. The message (as part of a series on stewardship) talked about First Fruits and why giving the first is important, not the surplus but the first. This also applies to how we spend our time. I've been trying to wake up talking to God first first instead of playing Wordle. May it become a habit that stays with me and moves me in other directions to think of God first.
We moved from being at worship to enjoying God's beautiful day. It was another Papa John "Top 10" day. Armed with Google Maps we returned to the place we had lunch on Day 1 (Dr. Beer and Mr. Fried) for another stab at a fried tomato tapas (they were out of tomatoes on Friday, and since fried tomatoes is a favorite recipe at home, I wanted to see their version).
The walk was enjoyable. We stumbled in this neighborhood park and saw Fernando Botero's famous El Gato sculpture in La Rambla de Ravel. Don was instantly drawn to the public works sculpture. I paused to amuse him. Imagine my surprise when we passed near there on our Graffiti tour and we were told it was a world-famous sculpture. Glad we stopped to take pictures of it.
The statue spent a number of years being moved around Barcelona -- by the zoo, and by the Olympic stadium, before finding a permanent home here.
Once again we were early for a tour, so we walked up to a corner of Montjuic to appreciate the views of Barcelona.
We walked down the hill and waited in front of a hotel for our tour to begin. There had been a lot of miscommunication about this tour, so I was concerned it might not happen (even though we paid 24 euros each for this tour). For some reason, I never received updates at my usual email address (including a receipt) but did to my icloud account. The other miscommunication was that the website said the start was at Cafe Avocado (which relocated to a different part of town) instead of in front of the Sehrs Hotel.
Finally we noticed a 20-something couple and asked if they were the tour guides. Success!
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