Barcelona

We booked our trip to Barcelona a really long time ago. Iberia Airlines had a fare sale, so we jumped on it. For some reason we didn't do the math to figure out what time we would have to wake up to be on a 7am flight from the Santiago airport, about 45 minutes away. It was actually early enough that I contemplated just staying awake all night :)

We arrived in Barcelona and went directly to the hotel to drop off our bags. They were nice and they let us go ahead and check into our room. A girl from PwC Barcelona, Mercé, is going to be subletting our apartment in Boston for a few months while we're in Spain - small world. She's going to take English classes in Boston, although her English is already really very good.

Anyways, we met Mercé and her boyfriend, Diego, early on Saturday and they showed us around the city. It was awesome to have personal tour guides! We walked past 'La Pedrera', a really crazy house built by Gaudí. It has waves in stone around the building and wrought iron balconies.

We walked down La Rambla street, which has street performers, artist booths, and restaurants. Right off of La Rambla was the Mercat de la Boqueria, a huge market full of fruit, vegetables, seafood, meats, candies, and more. I was very much a tourist and snapped pictures of everything. They had a whole huge booth full of just bananas!

We then toured the Barri Gotic Cathedral. It was really pretty with a huge pipe organ and stained glass windows.

Next on our stop was the Gran Teatre del Liceu, one of the largest opera houses in the world. It was twice destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt to exactly match the pre-fire decor.

After our stroll down La Rambla we were ready for some lunch! Diego had made reservations at a great seafood restaurant on the 'Mall de la Barceloneta', Cal Pinxo - Palau de Mar. The Mall de la Barceloneta is like a boardwalk near the sail boat port and just around the corner from the beach. For our appetizers we ate a salad made from raw shredded bacalao, some fried calamari, and steamed mussels. For our main course we had fideua, small noodles cooked in fish broth served with aioli sauce (garlic mayonnaise). It was delicious!

After lunch we said goodbye to Mercé and Diego (they were headed out of town for vacation) and bought a 2 day tour bus pass.

We made our way over to the 'red line' and to the Temple de la Sagrada Família (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia). Gaudí began working on this temple in 1883. He continued working on the project for over 40 years until he died in 1926. It is now projected that the project will be complete around 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudí 's death. From the very beginning, the only financing for this project has been from private donations - and this is still the case today!

The temple is really really interesting. It is full of religious messages, some hidden, and others blatant. One side of the temple is 'The Passion Facade', depicting the last days of Christ. There are stone sculptures depicting events such as the last supper, the judgment of Jesus, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus.

The other side of the temple is 'The Nativity Facade', depicting the birth of Christ. This side was completed much earlier and thus has more of a Gaudí influence. The Nativity Facade has stone carvings that are much more intricate and delicate than the Passion Facade. There are carvings that depict the virgin coronation, the birth of Jesus - watched over by shepherds, kings, and angels (one of which was playing the bassoon).

The inside of the temple was also amazing and larger than life. There are huge pillars that resemble tree trunks - they branch out into several limbs as they reach the ceiling. These pillars are made out of different types of stone depending on how much weight they support. There were stained glass windows and interesting stone cut-outs in the walls.

We decided to save 2€ and take the stairs up the spiral staircase up to the top of the towers instead of the elevator. There were a lot of stairs up a tiny little staircase - and if I had vertigo I'm sure I would've been in trouble - but it was a lot of fun. There were awesome views from tiny little windows in the stairwell and from the top!

There were so many more details that I could go on and on about, but I'll refrain for now :)

After leaving the Sagrada Família we went to the Park Guell. It was originally planned as a residential garden city, but it was unsuccessful and only one house was guilt. The park was donated to the city in 1923 and has become a public park. This park is home to a huge mosaic lizard, a huge 'window seat', beautiful flowers, and many interesting architectural details.

After hanging out in the park we were ready for a sunset drink on Tibidabo, Barcelona's observation deck. After relaxing for a little while and taking in some nighttime views from Tibidabo, we headed back to the Sagrada Família for tapas. We also were able to take some more cool pictures of the Sagrada Família all lit up.

We were then ready for a nice long night of SLEEP!! It was a very long and busy first day.

Sunday morning we jumped back on our tour bus and rode over to the Picasso Museum. On our way to the museum we passed the Olympic stadium, the swimming pools, and were able to see the Olympic village where the athletes lived.

Anyhow, the Picasso museum has art from all throughout Picasso's life. It was really interesting to see some of his sketches compared to the final work. If you walked in order through the rooms you could see how Picasso moved from portraits and landscapes early in his career to cubism and then to ceramics in his last years! He spent a few of his early years in La Coruña, so there were a few paintings of landmarks just down the street from us!

After the museum we walked over to the boardwalk for lunch. Since we have learned not to mess with a good thing, we ate at the same restaurant as Saturday. Again, it was really good food. We had a green salad, some anchoas (anchovies), paella, and some delicious white wine. We had a few good laughs during lunch as we watched the street vendors quickly pack up their fake purses and sunglasses getting ready to run down the street from a motorcycle cop. I do have to admit that I bought a cute pair of fake Chanel sunglasses :)

We rode the busses around a little bit, stopping at the Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral where we walked around and had some ice cream.

The rest of the afternoon we just rode around and saw the rest of the city! A few of Juan's co-workers have mentioned that if they were going to move anywhere else in Spain, it would be Barcelona. I can definitely understand why - it seems like a very clean, active, and pretty city. One thing that makes it hard for people to move to Barcelona from around Spain is that many businesses are conducted in a different language, Catalán.

Juan and I have already decided that we're going to come back to Barcelona in (or around) 2026 to see the completed Sagrada Família. If anyone is interesting in coming back with us, pencil it into your calendar now ;)

Next Trip: Day trips with my parents! I think we'll probably go to León and Santiago de Compostella. Maybe I'll even have another guest blogger!