Is Barcelona really in Spain?
Trip Start
May 24, 2008
1
10
63
Trip End
Dec 21, 2008
Barcelona,
Catalonia,
Spain
Friday, June 27, 2008
We had quite an early start from Milan to get our flight to Barcelona. Can you believe that if you were to get a taxi to the airport in Milan it would cost 120 Eur! Lucky we found that out early on and got the 8 Eur bus. Arrived early afternoon in Barcelona to our hotel which was in a great location just 5 minutes walk from La Rambla,
Spent most of the first afternoon walking the city and went to Gaudi's La Pedera (The Quarry) which is an apartment block designed by Gaudi. Pretty amazing design - all apartments have natural light and no internal walls are load bearing so you can choose to put them wherever you like when designing the apartment! The roof is probably the coolest part. Keeping on the Gaudi track we then went to La Sagrada Familia which is the cathedral that Gaudi designed and started to build, but unfortunately didn't finish because he died when hit by a tram outside La Sagrada Familia in 1926. Quite sad. Anyway, it's still not finished but they are working on it and hope to have it all done and dusted by 2020 (??). Things don't move so quickly in Spain (or Catalonia). You feel a tiny bit ripped off when you pay Eur 8 each to go in and there is nothing to see but scaffolding on the inside, but still a lot going on on the outside and it's not like any cathedral you have ever seen.
On the Saturday we headed out early to Park Guell which is also Gaudi inspired and where Gaudi lived.
On rooftop of La Pedera
In the arvo we headed down to the harbour area for lunch and then headed through the back streets to the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter). We did some really good shopping on the way around which I don't think we expected to do. Went to the Cathedral where they have geese living in the cloisters and you can get a lift (yes, no stairs) to the cathedral rooftop.We found some really great places to eat in Barcelona and a great variety of food compared to Italy.
Sunday morning we got the funicular and cable car to the Castell de Montjuic which looks out over Barcelona and is near the Olympic Village. On our walk back to La Rambla we took a bit of a wrong turn and ended up in a bit of a dodgy area - essentially a street lined with hookers and drug dealers - at 2 in the afternoon! We made a quick move to get out of there. Barcelona is a great city if you know where not to go. We were quite excited about the fact that Spain made it to the Euro 2008 final and thought on Sunday night we would watch the game somewhere in Barcelona, like on an outdoor screen, but turns out that Barcelona being part of Catalonia would not be showing the game in an outdoor arena type area. Boo.
Overall Barcelona was an amazing place to visit - so many good sights to see, places to eat and things to buy.
