Today is our last day in the country of Malta, with each morning bringing a new discovery. Adrian and John have been a little suspicious that each day of sightseeing seems to end at 3pm, but I told them that if they left the itinerary to me then I was going to ensure that there was regularly scheduled nap and relaxation time.

The weather has been spotty, but we have been lucky to have sun breaks most days that were warm enough to sit outside and enjoy a few drinks looking out at the sea. One of the highlights of the trip was a private morning tour by uPhotoMalta, where Duncan drove us around to his favourite spots on the island, letting us look out across the bay to Gozo and Comino, as well as some of the more isolated parts of the country. Near the tail end of Malta we stopped off to see Popeye’s Village of Sweet Haven, originally built in 1980 for the movie, and now operating as a theme park and private beach.

It is amazing that we can drive around the whole island in a single day. Even the pizza place near our door proudly proclaims that they deliver to all of Malta. Our uPhoto tour included a stop off in Rabat to try the delicious mush-pea filled Pastizzi pastries in an old hold-in-the-wall, with old men proudly showing off their trapped finches. We then walked across a bridge across an orange-grove filled moat to find ourselves in Mdina, the original capital city that is now a silent walled fortress containing the first cathedral of St John.

We stopped of for lunch at Marsaxlokk fishing village, the two-story buildings a stark contrast to the high rise apartments near our hotel at St Julian’s. All the boats were symbolically coloured with big eyes on their sides to ward off danger.

John even managed to hunt down to Canberrans living in Malta for us. Sam and Adam are taking a break from Oz to work in the Mediterranean for a year or so. We reminisced about Belconnen Bus Interchange and the Pancake Parlour over a few drinks, and then they were even so kind as to take a day off to show us a few more spots around the island. Thanks to their efforts, we were able to walk through the Mnajdra megalithic ‘temple’. This structure, along with the Tarxien, Hagar Qin, Ta’Hagrat and Skorba complexes, are the oldest free-standing stone monuments in the world, with some dated at over 5000 years old.

Nearby the Tarxien complex is the underground Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. To protect the stones from a build-up of carbon dioxide, only 60 visitors are permitted each day. We bought our tickets back in December to guarantee entry, and caught a taxi rather than the more jovial orange bus to ensure that we would arrive on time. It was an astonishing journey back in time, to see these huge underground caverns that had been carved without metal tools, with red ochre patterns still visible on the ceilings.

Our first port of call was an afternoon in Barcelona, my first time in Spain. We visited two very different works by the architect Antoni Gaudí who lived from 1852 to 1926. The port itself was difficult to exit from, requiring a shuttle bus from the boat into the city. Once inside the city, we each bought a one day metro pass and made our way quickly and easily throughout the city, avoiding the worst of the rain and giving our feet a bit of a rest in between stops. We stepped out of the metro to find ourselves at the foot of the Casa Batlló, often called the house of bones.

This house was renovated by Gaudí for the Batlló family in 1904, and is full of beautiful yet practical intricacies. The whole building feels as if it has sprouted from the ground, with organic lines that flow from one space to the next. The gill-like intricate wooden carvings in the doors can be slid upwards to control the ventilation, and the whole front window of the living room can be raised vertically to let open up the house on a summer’s day. The core of the building is a courtyard of light, tiled with a blue mosaic that darkens as it nears the sky. As the light is brighter at the top, this gives the illusion of a constant shade of blue all the way down. Every room has at least one source of natural light. Even the fireplace is thoughtfully designed, as it has two inside – a larger one for a courting couple, and a smaller one for their chaperone. It is a home that I would love to live in myself.

The Sagrada Família was also designed by Gaudí, and it was the first time that I have ever seen a church under construction. Construction was initiated in 1883, and it is projected that it will finish in 2026. Financed solely by private donations, the building employs 200 people full-time to design, carve, and assemble this immense stone structure. The exterior of the church will have three main sides that depict the Christian nativity, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Each scene is constructed in a different style. The figures in the crucifixion are carved with strong simple lines, and it was under this scene that we entered the church. While the resurrection scene is yet to be built, the nativity scene was mostly finished in the time of Gaudí. Now lying under a thick layer of soot, it looks like a melted sandcastle with drooping figures and dissolving towers.

While we didn’t think that the outside was very inspiring or beautiful, the inside of the church was quite lovely. The weight of the ceiling was held up by tall columns that split and stretched out like palm trees, with rays of light falling down between their leaves. These curved columns meant that no buttresses or flying buttresses were required, which permits the building to rise up quite quickly with a relatively small footprint. The stained glass is only now being placed inside the windows, and is the only source of colour in the grey stone temple. The most fascinating part of the visit was seeing the church as a work in progress. There were no pews or alters, only construction workers with plans and power tools.

We finished our architectural tour of Barcelona with a visit to the exterior of the world-heritage Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, built between 1901 and 1930. It was designed by Lluis Domenech i Montaner, with intricate mosaics, carvings, and iron works. It only ceased functioning as a hospital in July this year, and is currently being renovated for conversion into a museum.

To farewell the USA, we are spending three nights in San Francisco. We spent the first evening relaxing quietly, as I was still feeling quite sore. I had chicken noodle soup at a downtown diner, and then we went to see “Role Models” because of a cranky looking clip on The Daily Show. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves, and then headed back to our hotel at Union Square.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 to find some oatmeal from Starbucks, and then we were picked up at 6:30 for our day trip to Yosemite National Park. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, it is full of grand vistas. The sheer granite cliffs form huge valleys, laced with waterfalls above snow-dusted forests. We saw Bridalveil Falls, El Capitan, a 3 593 foot high granite monolith, and Half Dome, which was never a full dome.

After lunch (I had soup again), we went for an atmospheric walk through Tuolumne sequoia grove. As we were 6 000 feet up, the ground was lightly dusted with snow, and a thick fog enveloped us. The sequoias, the world’s largest living organism, emerged from the mist and towered above us. One fallen giant rested on its side, slowly returning to the soil. We watched a silver belly squirrel carefully pack its nuts into the ground, and spotted a parcel of deer scamper through the long grass.

For dinner I had mashed potatoes with gravy and yogurt. Returning to San Francisco, we stopped beside the Bay Bridge and admired its strings of light leading the way back into the city.