Views from Montjuic

Just to the south of Barcelona is a hilly area known as Montjuic.  We've been up that way several times, but never gone to the fortress at the top of the hill.  We had hoped to take the funicular train part of the way but it is currently closed for repair, so we hoofed it halfway up instead and then hopped on the Montjuic teleferic (gondola lift) to the top.

On the ride up, we had a nice view of the Sagrada Familia - still under construction.

The Castell de Montjuic itself was just okay.  We've seen a lot of forts in our time...I think we might still be "forted-out" from our time in the Caribbean, where every island has at least one fort.  However the views from the walls were still very nice, and there was a pleasant breeze as well (it's still kind of warm here; we're hoping it cools down before we have to leave!).

Afterwards we walked back downhill a little ways, passing this cool statue of the Sardana, a traditional Catalonian dance.

The statue makes it look a little bit like the children's game "ring around a rosy", but it's actually a complicated dance with various steps and some jumping/hopping involved.  There are often large gatherings of traditional music and sardana dancing in the summertime, and anyone can join in if you can follow the steps.  You can tell the more serious dancers because they usually wear special shoes - here's a photo I took a few weeks ago in the Placa de la Catedral:

Okay, back to our Montjuic walk...  Downhill from the fortress is the Port Vell Tramway, which actually takes you from the hill all the way to the old port.  Along the way you get a true bird's-eye view of the city.

And here's a quick video of the last minute or so of the tram ride: