Barcelona, Days 1-4

I’m posting this as we sit in the Barcelona airport, leaving Barcelona. Unfortunately, our hotel had horrid wifi service, otherwise I would have posted earlier. The most it could muster were a few photo uploads and email checks – Facebook, WordPress and Twitter all felt a little abandoned the past few days.

But we’re in Europe after all! All the better to do more exploring and enjoy each other’s company. 🙂

Saturday morning FINALLY rolled around, and the busload of Perpignan students tiredly filed off the bus.

Then there was me, running through the terminal, jumping over bags and fighting with the revolving door, which conveniently kept stopping every few seconds just as Graeme came into view.

So I was a little excited to see him...

After his long flight, the first order of business was to find our hotel, check in, and take a rest before our tapas tour. At 5 p.m., we met our tour guide Sonja, who took us on a walk of some of Barcelona’s most favourite streets and sights, including Las Ramblas, St. Josep Bouqueria and Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral. We tried a number of different Catalan-style tapas dishes and had a marvellous evening with our tour group from Oakville.

The next day we tackled Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, both the handiwork of renowned artist Antonio Gaudi.

Sagrada Familia was hands down the most gorgeous church I have ever seen. What struck me the most was how it was still under construction 110 years after Gaudi began the masterpiece. That doesn’t include restorations! Its airy, light architecture and “modern” influences (it’s technically a “young” church) attracted me most. Gaudi was also very interested in nature, and so molded and designed his works based on the shapes found in nature (leaves, tree trunks, flowers, stars, etc). We were both extremely impressed with his weight and tension studies in terms of where to place supports for his structures.

How Gaudi determined where to place pillars based on weight and tension...upside down, then flipped right-side up!

In the vestibule at Sagrada Familia.

Parc Guell was beautiful. Gaudi’s bizarre architecture combined with his love of nature made walking through the park a wonderful evening activity. We also paid 4.50 each to go inside Gaudi’s house…which turned out to be more interesting from the outside. Oh well.

We had a late dinner after talking to both my parents and Graeme’s dad and sister, and passed out after the long day.

On Monday, we decided to go on a less conventional tour – a visit to the FC Barcelona stadium. Sonja inadvertently mentioned it on the tapas tour (she could not have shown her surprise more clearly that a football museum was the most popular tourist destination in the city), so we decided to check it out.

We’re so glad we did! We did a complete tour of the changerooms, stadium, museum, trophy room and gift shop, and even took a picture hoisting the championship cup. It was even more impressive to see the “6 cups” display, showing the six major titles the franchise captured in just one year.

At Camp Nou

Champs!

That afternoon, we went back to Las Ramblas to walk around and shop, and headed to the pier for a nice dinner on the harbour. The seafood was incredible and so fresh! Our waiter treated us to two glasses of “cava,” or champagne, on the house.

At La Gavina for dinner.

This morning, we visited the Palau de la Musica Catalan. Taking pictures was prohibited (I know, a little part of me died inside), so you’ll have to check out their site to see how spectacular the building is inside. We learned that the ENTIRE inside of the theatre was built in just three years – if you look at a picture, you’ll see how that’s incredibly impressive.  The Palau is still used for concerts today, from Catalan traditional music, to classical, to modern-day acts.

We had lunch and shopped along Passieg de Garcia and Rambla Catalunya, and walked by Le Pedrera, Gaudi’s apartment and Casa Batllo. Much to our disappointment, Le Pedrera had a line that looked about four years long, and we had a plane to catch. Next time. 😦

Anyways, this has been of equivalent length to a novel – which I promise won’t happen again – as I had lots to catch you up on.

Adios Barcelona, our flight is being called. Talk to you when we’re back in belle France!

M