Day Four: Exploring Barcelona

Day 4 in Spain:

Women's Team at Olympic Stadium

After breakfast, the team ventured into downtown barcelona to see Olympic Stadium. The stadium was used for the 92' Olympic games in Barcelona. Miguel, our tour guide, explained how this stadium was most widely known for the lighting of the tourch cermenoy that included an archer shooting a flaming arrow over the torch inorder to light it.

After exploring the stadium, it was time to head to the church of the Sacred Family. This cathedral was designed by Gaudi, a famous Spanish artist, however, its design was so complex that only half of the construction was able to be completed before his death. The second half was designed by a completely different artist, and the differences are quite obvious. Also, during this time, a few players noticed that Rafa Nadal was present and were able to take pictures of him playing a pick up tennis match against a local.

Tennis Star Rafa Nadal

Women's Team at Gaudi Park

The next great adventure took place in downtown Barcelona where we were given almost 3 hours to walk around and do some shopping. Because Barcelona played Chelsea today in a Champions league game, we were warned about the Chelsea fans as Miguel described them being "drunk and dangerous". As we roamed the streets, it was obvious that he wasn't wrong. A large group of supporters began a Chelsea rant through the streets and were successful in angering many of the Barca faithful. Beyond the fans, it was fun to walk through all of the back allys and discover all of the odd stores the city has to offer.

Finally, the team was gathered and were sent off to play a game against a local club team. Their style of play was much different than anything that we were used to and it took us a long time to figure how to play them best. In the end we won the game 4-1 and after completion of the game we watched the last 20 minuets of the Barca-Chelsea game and were mostly dissapointed when Chelsea won on aggregate. While we watched the game snacks and drinks were served for both teams as we socialized with our Spanish opponents. At the end of the day we returned to the hotel and prepared for the next day.

Men's Team After Game

Jared Nelson
Class of 2014
Wartburg Men's Soccer