Road Trip Day 6: Barcelona

For my program at Wilfrid Laurier University, I had to take a course on cultural aspects of France, Spain and Germany and from this class, I learned some about Barcelona and Catalonia.  In particular, I learned a lot about the 19th-20th century architect Antoni Gaudí and had seen a lot of pictures of his unique works in Barcelona.  So I recommended to the gals that we check out at least two of them: Parc Güell and Sagrada Família and on Monday morning we set out to find our way into the city by commuter train from our suburb.  Before that though, I wanted to re-park.  The night before had been a little stressful trying to fit into tight spaces in the underground lot.  It had been impossible in fact, so I made up a space.  Fortunately, there was a new one open that I could take Monday morning.  Phew, European parking--stresses me out a bit even to write about it!

We found the back entrance to Parc Güell, which demanded a very long and steep climb.  There were escalators, but my companions preferred the stairs (I did a combination, preferring not to start my day off all sweaty :) and I am certain they are in better shape than I!)  This picture kind of shows the height and the steepness.








The park was what I expected, but the crowds were insane and we found ourselves not enjoying this introduction to Barcelona.

But it is quite pretty and unique.

Sitting on the cold benches and taking photos of the mosaic was kind of fun

 We found as quiet of a way possible out of the park and wandered some streets.  We noticed some graffiti in Catalan that seemed a little angry at tourists and maybe just at everything.  (Interesting that both places we visited in Spain are not historically Spanish--Catalonia, like Vasco, having a history and story of its own.)

Back on a more main road, we saw loads of tourists again, including people riding double-decker tourist buses.  It was a good reminder of how much I preferred our methods of touring.  We carried on in search of the famous, unfinished cathedral, the Sagrada Familia.  Gaudí certainly had lofty ambitions in designing this church--it is so big and sooo different.

The back

The front

The lines to go inside were too long for us, so our next destination was the famous Las Ramblas, basically a long walkway of open-air markets and such.  We went to the waterfront (after reaching the Atlantic the day before, we needed to get to the Mediterranean) where we chose somewhere to eat--a Chinese restaurant!  (There weren't a lot of affordable options and we did manage to try some tapas later that evening.)

See, more crowds!

This is the Catalonia flag

We tired of Las Ramblas and went in search of the Gothic Quarter of the city.  We heard a commotion a little ways off and saw lots of yellow shirts and as we approached, we realized that a flash mob had broken out.  I tried catching some on video.

In wandering around the Gothic Quarter, we didn't do much except a little shopping, watched some kids dressed up for Halloween and I messed around with my night time photography of the Barcelona Cathedral.

All in all, a successful day--a whirlwind tour again of a major tourist destination, but I think we were all satisfied with the taste of Barcelona we experienced.  Did you notice, there was no driving this day?!