Barcelona -or- The Town that Gaudi Built

A couple of weekends ago we went to Barcelona. British Airways was having a sale on vacation packages and we wanted to go somewhere (Prague was our first choice but too expensive and very, very cold) and Barcelona fit the bill, literally. AND we heard they had sunshine there so that was a major draw, seeing as how at that point it felt as though we'd gone 2 months without seeing the sun.

We flew in super early Friday morning, checked into our hotel and headed out. The first stop was the Cathedral which was really beautiful. Gothic cathedrals are my favorite and this was a perfect example. We got a little lost on our way there wandering around eating so we happened upon a sneaky side entrance that took us through the cloisters, instead of the main door of the nave so we wandered around the courtyard a little.

The inside of the cathedral was pretty amazing and to top it all off, we took an elevator to the roof to check out the view.

Next we wandered our way through a park down to the beach. The sun was shining and the weather was a perfect 65*. There were lots of people walking along the beach and eating at the many restaurants. We did a little people watching then headed off to find our own food.

We couldn't decide what we wanted for dinner so we had gelato at the port and happened upon several modern sculptures and a monument to Columbus.

We then headed back to the hotel, stopping for a quick dinner, changed our clothes and went to a Spanish Guitar Duet concert that was held in a tiny private chapel of a centuries old church in the middle of the city. It was really beautiful (the church and the music) and a perfect way to end our first day.

Saturday was Gaudi day. He was a famous architect during Barcelona's Modernisme period and designed tons of buildings throughout the city. The first stop was The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, a Roman Catholic church that is still under construction, over a hundred years after it was started. The outside is a jumble of all kinds of different art nouveau styles and if you look closely you can spy all kinds of interesting things, like gecko gargoyles and turtles holding up the big columns.

The inside was COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED. It was totally different from anything we could have expected, probably because on seeing the outside we had no idea what to expect. It was incredible. I think the stained glass windows were my favorite part.

The we took the elevator up the tower and got to see the view from one of the walkways between the big towers. It was crazy cool.

Next we we toured Casa Batlló, a private house he was paid to remodel. The whole thing has ocean and underwater themes and was very swirly and strange. It was like walking through some kind of cartoon or something. I think my favorite things there were the façade and the roof.

Then it was on to Casa Mila, a building of private apartments. The real draw here was the rooftop terrace with its crazy chimneys and the view.

Our last stop that day was Parc Güell, a garden/park with lots of architectural bits. It was dark by the time we got there and it is surprisingly unlit but we still had a good time exploring and trying to take some decent pictures.

Sunday was our last day there and we used it to catch a few last things on our list. We were so tired from all of the walking the day before that we didn't even leave the hotel until 1pm because we needed a nap after breakfast. Day of rest, right? We wandered around town a little and saw another cathedral and had some tapas and then we took a funicular ride to the top of the big hill to see the Olympic Park and to just walk around and enjoy the sun and fresh air.

We happened to come across a few pretty little gardens and passed the art museum on our way back to the hotel (but didn't go in because it was closed).

We had a really nice time in Barcelona and think it was time and money well spent. If you'd like to see more pictures, here is a link to the Picasa web album.

Barcelona Feb 2011