This morning, after sleeping in (good thought after yesterday), Josep, his parents and I went to Cordona. This is a place that's famous for two things: an enormous salt mine and a castle. The deal is that the castle was built in ancient Roman times to protect the salt mines, given how valuable salt was in the culture.

The salt mine trip was fascinating. Celia, as a science teacher, has taken many classes to it. As she said a few days ago, to her, the mine is much more interesting than the castle. The mine itself has been running commercially for about 60 years. The stalactites/stalagmines, unlike in other caves, form very quickly, in a few years as opposed to a few thousand, due to the nature of the salt crystals.

Afterward, we went to the castle. While you couldn't explore the castle itself much, we lucked out. The president of Catalunya is due there this afternoon for a concert, so the castle's chapel, where to concert will be held, was open. We took advantage and went in. Think "I'm with the band!"

My natural filter against taking pictures in religious space failed me again, but since they're using it today for as a concert hall, I felt justified.

In addition to being in an ancient Roman castle's chapel wasn't enough, we also sneaked into the crypt underneath the altar.

Near the altar there were a few tombs. According to Celia, the tombs were opened in wartime to hide the castle's valuables.

One other point of note: when Catalunya was annexed by Spain, Cordona was the last holdout; for a week, they rebelled against the Spanish.

It's funny how many pieces of graffiti I've seen that say "Catalunya is not Spain!" I asked why they were in English, and Jaume answered that in English, the message gets out better.

Another interesting perspective. Josep and I had a short talk about World Cup. I knew that he didn't follow football, but he wasn't the least bit excited about Spain's win. Why? The people here feel that Spain didn't win. Because the bulk of the team was from the Barcelona soccer team, CATALUNYA won the World Cup; Spain claimed the glory.

This afternoon Josep and I went to the local pool after his siesta, then Celia, Jaume, and I went to check out a Roman church nearby. Celia is teasing that the three of us are on the Church Tour. We'll fix that tomorrow when we do Barcelona!