Barcelona Day 2
Today was a very full day with a bus tour around Barcelona where our tour guide pointed out the old and new architecture as she provided us with some of the city’s history. Outside the main center city we passed by the site off the 1992 Olympics where the facilities are actively used today by the residents of Barcelona. We then made a brief stop on the nearby grounds of the Barcelona Museum where we enjoyed a beautiful view of the city.
We then ventured on to Park Guell a planned, fascinating and huge hilltop community designed by architect Antonio Gaudi in the early 1900s for the affluent people of Barcelona. The somewhat quirkey grounds are filled with unusual sculptures built into structures and large gardens. The community was never completed beyond a few buildings and Gaudi’s residences because Gaudi could not convince people to move there from the center of Barcelona. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site and tickets sell out almost every day.
Our last stop was to the famous unfinished church, La Sagrada Familia which was also designed by Gaudi and is one of his most famous projects. It is still under active construction and is expected to be completed sometime before 2030. In 2005 the building was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and in 2010 Pope Benedict proclaimed it a minor basilica. The external facade has hundreds of scenes and figures depicting the life of Jesus. One needs to see it to get an appreciation for the complexity of the facade. While it was not much to my liking, the elements are stunning, and I can certainly appreciate everything that went into its design and construction. The interior of the church is strikingly different and left me in awe. There are only 1 or 2 statue figures and no secondary altars in the massive main part of the church. It gives one the feeling of being in a massive serene forest. The natural lighting adds to the feeling as do the beautiful stained glass windows with their cool colors on one side and brilliant warm colors on the other. It gave the feeling of being in a forest’s where the sun is beginning to set. I found the interior truly magnificent.
Our taxi ride back to our hotel was by far one of the most harrowing experiences we’ve ever experienced. I shut my eyes at one point and thought I should have purchased those rosary beads being sold outside the church. I breathed a huge sigh of relief exiting that taxi.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed a glass of sangria which helped us forget about the crazy taxi ride.
After a brief rest we headed out for an evening walking tour, some tapas and a Flamenco show. The meeting place for our tour was a short walk from our hotel and took us through some picturesque streets and past the beautiful gothic basilica which is located on an open pedestrian plaza.
Our tour group was much larger than the previous night’s group but everyone enjoyed each other’s company and we had a great time. Our tour guide was good, but not quite as good as the one the previous evening. There was lots of laughter throughout the entire evening. Our group included 6 friends from Seattle who just completed a cruise, a mom and her 2 teenage daughters from Arizona, 2 sisters from Australia and us. Our tour guide was a young woman from China who moved to Spain five years ago. She took us through some of the same narrow streets we had just traveled on, but as we walked we learned some history of the city and the buildings we saw.
Our group made 2 restaurant stops where we got to try a large variety of tapas and other Spanish foods. My favorite was a tapas made with what tasted like brie but I think was goat cheese, topped with marinated red pepper and a small salty fish that looked like an anchovy. We also enjoyed sangria and wine with our tapas.
Our final stop was an incredible flamenco show in a small theater. Three singers and a guitar player performed on chairs as the dancers performed their incredible dance moves.
We stopped for a gelato on our walk back to the hotel. Our feet knew they had put in a number of miles so we we turned in for the night once we arrived back at the hotel. Tomorrow is our cruise boarding day so we will just have breakfast in the hotel and relax till it’s time to head to the port. We need a little down time.
