Okay I’ll admit it: I don’t love Barcelona. Everyone always raves about it but it just doesn’t do it for me.
A lot has happened since I last posted about “European Vacation” starring Kate and John so a quick recap: we started off by having cheese, pancakes and jenever in Amsterdam, we saw Cinderella’s castle in Bavaria, and we had beers, brats, and pretzels in Munich. Enough that people were noticeably worried when they didn’t hear about them.
Okay, all caught up. Then we went to Barcelona. We started with a free tour of the city which was, well, free. That was about all it had going for it. Our tour guide was originally from NYC but had lived in Barcelona forever, man. I’m still not completely convinced that he wasn’t drunk. But hey, at least he kept us from getting lost in the small side streets of the Gothic Quarter. For the most part.
We did learn that this type of wall decor is called sgraffito and is created by applying multiple, different colored layers of plaster. Apparently that’s where the word graffiti comes from. How did we go from chubby cherubs to illegible letters? Where did we go wrong?
We also got to see the spot where Fernando and Isabel received Columbus when he returned from his first voyage to America. He brought them back gifts and everything. We stood there for a little bit but no one brought us any gifts. I guess we didn’t look regal enough.
Anyways we saw a little bit more of the old city, including the cathedral, part of the original entrance into the city and a building that had been damaged by bombings during the Civil War.
Speaking of the Civil War (sort of), we also saw the open-air fresco by Picasso that was installed in 1962, during the reign of Francisco Franco. The mural was a celebration of the Catalán culture making its introduction during the time of Franco all the more incredible.
With the tour behind us and feeling like we had seen enough of the Gothic Quarter for the time being, we headed towards the water. But first, the Arc de Triomf and the Port de Barcelona.
The second day was all about Gaudí. I had been to Barcelona back in 2009 when I studied in Sevilla. But when I thought back to that trip I couldn’t remember going inside the Sagrada Familia. I must have gone inside, right? That just wouldn’t make sense, I mean why would we take a tour that brought us to the Sagrada Familia but didn’t take us in? Well, it turns out that I didn’t go inside the last time…because the inside didn’t exist. It wasn’t finished until 2010. That’s so weird to think of: construction started in 1882 and there wasn’t an inside until 2010. What would Ted Mosby say? Actually he would probably geek out about it.
Anyway, I’m glad I finally got to see the inside, because the inside looks like this:
So many pretty colors that I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I couldn’t really consider this a Barcelona post without some pictures of the exterior (of which only two of the facades are actually completed. Yeahh, I think their projected completion date of 2025 may be a little off.) So here we go:
And because it’s the thing to do, we saw the other Gaudí buildings, the Casa Batlló (on the left) and the Casa Milà (on the right). Call me crazy but they were kind of a letdown.
Finally we made our way out to Parc Güell. Once we got out there we spent most of our time in the park park next door instead of Gaudi’s park. When you see the views you’ll understand why…
Our last day started with a bang. In the form of an epic sunrise. It really is amazing to come alive with the sun, I could do it everyday.
And that was followed by a trip to the spa. Heaven.
So we left Barcelona on a high note and took the train through the Spanish countryside to end our trip back where we started, in Madrid.
Note: the northern countryside is a lot more beautiful than the southern countryside. Just look how mesmerizing!
