La Sagrada Família is one of Barcelona's most famous and most visited tourist attractions. You can definitely see why. It is a church like no other. Designed by Atoni Gaudi, his fondness for curves, ellipses and arches has made La Sagrada Família the most striking church I've ever seen. I'm sure it will be even more impressive when it's actually completed. Construction started in 1882 and is scheduled for completion in 2026. That's a truly medieval timetable.

Andrew and I first visited La Sagrada Família in January last year. On our recent trip to Barcelona we thought we'd return to the church to see just how far construction had progressed in a year and a half.

The verdict? We could kind of see some progress but not a huge alteration. The audio guide states that the La Sagrada Família is halfway there. That's 126 years to reach 50% and they reckon it's only another 18 years to finish it. A group of us have pledged to visit La Sagrada when it's finished. I wonder how old we'll be... we might be a group of centenarians paying homage to a bicentenarian.

More photos on Flickr...

We have returned from our Iberian odyssey. We actually returned a day earlier than we had planned. Someone accidentally booked us onto a flight on the Thursday instead of the Friday. (oops!) Luckily we figured this out before we missed the plane.

The extra day has been a blessing in disguise. We've had time to do some laundry, grocery shopping, plan for a dinner party and generally prepare for the arrival of the Mother (and TD). Although, the place looked tidier when we walked in the door then it does now. (I can imagine there will be some hurried shoving of mess into cupboards tomorrow.)

I'll leave you with some photos of Andrew and I enjoying Pastéis de Nata (what we call Portuguese tarts in Australia.) I think we enjoyed a little too many of these while we were in Portugal. They are delicious and are definitely worth the extra calories. Luckily Lisbon is very hilly; hopefully we worked some of those Natajoules off.

So, Andrew and I have headed to Spain for a three week vacation with the wrinklies... um the parents. We spent a few days soaking up the sun in Barcelona with Mum. We caught a train to Madrid. We spent a few days soaking up the culture in Madrid with Mum. TD arrived yesterday... his bag did not.

I'm not really going to have time to update a lot, but here are a few photos from Barcelona to tide you over.