Bull Fighting Ring, Barcelona
We started the day by grabbing pastries and coffee from the
bakery directly next door to our hotel, then catching the Hop On Hop Off bus.
This open-top bus costs 28 euros for 24 hours and is the most convenient way to
see a lot of Barcelona on a tight schedule. It also comes with a pretty decent audio tour, in English. We rode on the top deck and saw the
old harbor, beaches, Olympic Village, a bullfighting ring, the famous Barcelona
building I call “the bullet,” a modernist hospital, a Frank Gehry-designed
hotel and sculpture, and a lot more.
"the bullet"
Our destination was Park Guell, on the far edge of town. We
got off the bus and walked 15 minutes to the park ticket office, only to learn
that the next available tickets were for 6pm. It was noon. We hiked back, got
back on the bus, and went to the other Gaudi building we wanted to see – La Padrera.
La Padrera is an amazing apartment building that looks like
melting ice cream – all curvy shapes and soft edges. Gaudi said that rooftops
should be beautiful too – not just functional. So we began our tour on the
roof, where he designed a series of sculptural chimneys, stairwell exits and antennae
covers. Adam said they looked like storm troopers. The ones topped with broken
champagne bottles are obviously based on a certain male body part. Gaudi did
base all his designs on nature!
ummmm...
The arches on the rooftop were built to frame Gaudi’s
masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia.
Arch framing La Sagrada Familia, way in the distance
We descended the stairs and entered an actual
apartment. It was huge! Way bigger than I expected. It encircled the center
courtyard and took up an entire floor, so it had natural light from both sides.
People still live on other floors in the building. Can you even imagine living
in a Gaudi building? I mean, the guy has a commonly used word (gaudy) based
entirely on his name and design style. How cool!
Next we stopped for tapas along the Passeig de Gracia, and I
ordered pasta because I was tapas-ed out.
We walked to the Placa de Catalunya, the huge square in the center of
the city, and sat for a bit to watch pigeons and people taking selfies. Then we
strolled down Ramblas, which was incredibly crowded, so we dipped into the
Gothic Quarter and found a quiet square on which to enjoy some gelato.
After strolling and shopping a bit, we grabbed a cab back to
Park Guell for our 6pm ticket time. Park Guell is a Gaudi-designed housing
development that was started, but never finished. It is basically the grounds
that were going to have houses built on site, but the houses never followed.
Everything in the park is covered with broken tiles. We saw the salamander,
which is the symbol of the city, and the serpent shaped bench that winds for
hundreds of meters around a huge vaulted space that overlooks all of Barcelona.
The grounds also feature a grotto built entirely of stone, part of which Gaudi designed to look like
you are inside the barrel of a wave. Overall, Park Guell was well worth the extra effort and cost
it took to get there. We agreed we were glad we had gone.
The Wave
We headed back to the hotel and vowed to hold out until 9pm
to eat dinner, as that is when the restaurants start to fill up. It was still
light outside when we left the hotel at 9:30. WTF Spain? We are used to
darkness falling at 8:30, not 10pm. It was weird! No wonder people eat so late!
Strolling past the cathedral, just as people have done for 800 years
Cool street art, made up of thousands of tiny photos
We had dinner at 10pm at a place called Taller de Tapas, which
was also very good. I had white sangria instead of red this time. We had salads,
bread, cheese, meat that was cooked in a pot with chilis and garlic – it all was
delicious!
Back at the hotel, we went to the rooftop one last time and
said goodnight to Barcelona.
"the bullet" in the distance
Tomorrow: The road trip begins!
xoxo
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