Barcelona Spain

We spent Easter break in Barcelona!!

We met our good friends the Nagels down south for 4 days of tapas, vino, paella, art, tourism and catching up. We left work a bit early on Thursday and headed for the airport. As we flew into BCN the view from the plane was amazing as the sky was glowing red, orange and purple over the snow capped Pyrenees mountains. It was so beutiful I forgot about my usual fear of flying. By the time we went over the city the sun was down and Barcelona was just a blanket of lights next to the water. Way off in the distance Mt Tibidabo was lit up and glowing alone on top of the hill like a giant shrine.

First Night

The express train was down so we were told to catch the bus to the city center. A gay British couple befriended us and gave us help with the Metro and advice about the best sights to see. We finally made it to our hotel near Olympic Village, nice hotel but not the best location. It was so good to see our friends, we headed straight down to the water for Paella, Sangria and catching up about their time in Madrid. Along the harbor there is a strip of seedy clubs. The entire area had been built up for the 1992 Olympics. We found a trendy looking bar and sat down for more catching up. It is common there to see many bouts of PDA and we saw our fair share, including those around us in the "sparesly" filled bar. Serious snogging is rampant in BCN, I was surprised but also admired the passion. hehehe I think we ended up back at our hotel early that night, for Spanish standards, it was about 4am I think.

Taking in Gaudi

We woke up and made our way to Las Ramblas. It's a strip along the gothic quarter with shops, street performers, pick pockets and plenty to see. Stacy and I had our eyes open for cheap postcards. It starts at the top at Placa de Catalunya with fountains and shopping attractions near the Eixample district. The end of Las Ramblas is at the sea where Christoper Columbus is high pointing towards the Americas. People can actually go up into the top of this skinny statue but it's so thin I can't imagine how anyone fits up there. At the sea there is the harbor with lots of amazing boats, restaurants, world trade center, the scary gondola that gives you a ride up to Montjuic, etc. There is also Mare Magnum a giant floating shopping/eating center with a drawbridge for boats to enter/exit.
Sagrada Familia was the most amazing thing we saw in Barcelona. Gaudi started building this 120+ years ago and it's still not finished - will be another 50 years. We queued to go inside and were amazed by all the detail and Gaudi style. There are no right angles in Gaudi's architecture. It was amazing to see how he designed La Sagrada Familia... taking these little sacks filled with weights and hanging them from rope from the ceiling, that was how he designed the columns, it was amazing and we saw this as part of the tour.
La Pedrerra (casa mila) by Antoni Guadi was neat. We queued up and went inside so we could check out the rooftop filled with ice cream cone shaped structures, the museum and the apartment. We sped through to the museum to get to the roof. The apartment was funky as well, but nothing shocking. What I loved the most about seeing the apartment is that it was still furnished from 100 years ago and I love seeing the old kitchen and bathroom fixtures, the old telephone, the water heater that hangs above the old porcelain tub, the bedroom furniture ornate and matching, everything was gorgeous. I recommend not bothering to go inside unless you are architecture obsessed.

Ever been on one of those Bus Tours?

Barcelona has two main bus tour companies and we took the wrong one, the one without headphones. We saw the entire city - which was cool - but we didn't learn anything about what we were seeing. I've never done one of those, heard they can be cool but it takes up the whole day. We hit up a wine bar in the Gothic Quarter and headed to Hostel El Pintor for dinner. It was a great venue and the food delish.

Picasso Museum

The Picasso museum was worth the wait in line! It was neat to see his works from age of 12 develop into what style he is famous for. The blue period was neat and the erotic drawings are hilarious.

More Gaudi, Dock Party, amazing food

We headed to Gaudi's Park Guell, which never took off as a gated community with the locals because it was too far from the city center. Gaudi's house he lived in for 20 years is still there. The park entrance is gorgeous with funky Gaudi houses, the lizard fountain and the columned room with ergonomic mosaic tiles on top. It's like something out of theme park, it's amazing when you stop to realise how long ago it was built and think of how far ahead of his time Gaudi was. The park is on a hill so it's great for hiking but we tried to ignore the pungent smell. It was so strong in places, we noticed a giant pile of manure which must have been used for vegetation. Though we didn't see a single sign for Toilets so...
We headed back down to civilization and headed to the water for some food. We ate along the harbor at Port Vell. Then we picked up some champagne and headed for Captain Tosh's dock party. There were about 20 boat people on the dock and everyone having a great time. We met Captain Tosh, Shotsie and their friends. Their boat the millenium is up for sale. We got a tour and it's amazing inside. They have a washer dryer on board, a freshwater maker, 3 toilets, 4 births, kitchen, etc. It was amazing inside! Shotsy did a great job with the varnish. :-)
After too much champagne and beers on the stern we said goodbye and headed for Little Italy in the Gothic Quarter. I tried beetroot gnocchi for the first time and it was the best Italian dish I've ever had. We had a gimlet at Gimlet but were smoked out and called it a night.

Las Ramblas, Eixample, lots of walking

Cruised Las Ramblas again first thing in the morning. Walked our way up through the Eixample, saw many cool buildings and walked by the Block of Discord which shows 3 different architecture styles of buildings, including Gaudi's Casa Batllo. Extreme tourism at it's best that day led us to the Hard Rock Cafe at Placa de Catalunya where we ate american cuisine. After 4 days of paella, sangria, tapas, and wine we felt like eating typical stuff like burgers and nachos. Give us some credit, we ordered Spanish beer. ;-) We had the most hilarious taxi ride back to our hotel while there. The front passenger seat was broken and somehow Ethan ended up in there, scrunched up small with his face kissing this dusty witch doll hanging from the sun visor. We could not stop laughing to the point that the taxi driver told us to be quiet or get out. LOL

Go to Barcelona!

We had a great time there and it was so cool to meet friends there and visit, we had a lot of fun. If we go back to BCN I would love to travel outside of the city to see Stiges and Montsserat. Maybe next time, but for now we have a lot of good memories to hold onto.