Spain Day Two: Gaudy, But We Love It!

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.

The roof of La Padrera, looking down into the center courtyard;

"storm troopers" on the left

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

Mediterranean Cruise Day Twelve: Hola Spain!

View from our hotel rooftop!

Today started early, as we woke up at 4am to watch the last game of the Thunder-Warriors series. Results were disappointing, so we grumbled up to the breakfast buffet, grabbed coffee and pastries, and then left the ship by 7:30 am. We were glad to be back on terra firma, even though we would still feel as if we were on a moving ship for a few days. We had serious sea legs and kept bumping into each other (more than usual).

H10 Montcada lobby

We took a cab to our hotel (there was no taxi line at all at the port, so don’t let the ship scare you into buying a transfer), and had them store our bags. I fell in love with the hotel at first sight. If you are in Barcelona, please stay at the H10 Montcada. The location is perfect, the décor is freaking gorgeous, and the rooftop bar is the ultimate topper.

We saw a Starbucks one block away, so headed there for my first chai latte in 14 days. We always try to patronize local places, but I also do like to buy those Starbucks city-specific mugs from places I visit, so we went to check them out.

Then we met Adam’s friend Julio, who came all the way from Geneva to see us. Do we have great friends, or what?! He is originally from Spain, so he would spend the morning with us walking around Barcelona.

I had been to Barcelona once before, and was super excited to show Adam the Sagrada Familia. I was explaining that it is so different from traditional gothic cathedrals, and he mentioned he had never been in one of those either. Neither of us is religious at all, but I told him churches are my absolute FAVORITE thing in Europe, if only for the grandiosity and the artwork. So we immediately had to visit a gothic cathedral so he would have a point of reference. We went to both the Santa Maria Del Mar and the Cathedral of Barcelona. I hadn’t been in either and gasped when I walked into both. Adam had the same reaction. It’s not often I see him walk around agape while taking it all in. Mission accomplished.

We walked through the Gothic Quarter over to the Ramblas and into the Escriba Patisserie. It is the Laduree of Barcelona, a “luxury bakery” full of artisan pastries. 

Then it was off to La Boqueria Market. I am obsessed with the color and order of markets in Europe. We sat at a counter and had a cup of coffee while Adam and Julio caught up. 

At the bottom of Ramblas, we found the Christopher Columbus monument and kept asking him silly USA questions like, "where is McDonald's?" "Where is the White House?" He was always correct....

We wound our way back though the Gothic Quarter to our hotel, stopping every 20 minutes or so at a different patisserie so that Julio could buy us something to taste. “Try these fresh churros!” “Try this ham and cheese croissant!” “Try this glazed flat dough pine nut encrusted thing!” He told us that is how the Spanish do it – dipping into different places as they walk, grabbing a drink and a small snack.

With enough sustenance to make it back, we checked into the hotel, put our bags in the room and went up to the roof. WOW. Who needs to climb the towers of the Sagrada Familia when your hotel offers a rooftop overlook of the entire city?!

Speaking of the Sagrada Familia, it was time to head there for our 2pm pre-purchased tickets. We walked all the way there, stopping to snack along the route. Good thing we bought them online in advance because the wait was four hours! We said goodbye to Julio, and went inside. This place never gets old. It is a true architectural masterpiece. Adam was silent the whole time. I thought something was wrong with him. But he was just in complete and total awe. He said it was THE most amazing interior of any building he had ever seen.

And the exterior isn't too shabby either!

We were exhausted, so we took a cab back to the hotel and rested for a bit. We got a recommendation for dinner in the Santa Caterina market --the city’s other big market. We sat at a table and tried to order some food, but we were told the kitchen doesn’t open until 8pm. It was 7:30. We said we would just have sangria. The owner told us we couldn’t occupy a table if we were just having drinks, so he picked up our stuff and moved us to the bar. I still don’t understand why we couldn’t sit at a table in an empty restaurant whose kitchen wasn’t yet open. But whatever.

We left to eat somewhere else and stumbled upon Lonja de Tapas, which was EXCELLENT. We had sangria, manchego with quince, salad with walnuts and parmesan, potato meatballs with garlic sauce, bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil and a few other amazing tapas.

We went back to the hotel to see the city at night from the rooftop. And then I could no longer resist – I took a bath. I am a bath person and after being on a cruise ship for 12 days, I nearly cried tears of joy when I saw a bathtub. According to my iphone heart app, we had walked 9.89 miles today. My legs needed that bath! It was heaven, just like the rest of Barcelona.

Tomorrow: all Gaudi, all the time.

xoxo