Breath Taking Views and a Historical Walk through the City
Since we have just a few days in Barcelona and there is so much to see, we booked a tour for our first full day. This let us see majority of the city while giving us ideas as to where we wanted to spend the rest of our time while we were here.
The tour was part walking and part driving. Nicole was our tour guide and had an endless supply of historical knowledge about the city.
The tour was focused on Antoni Gaudi's Barcelona, but we were also able to see other important sites scattered throughout the city.
To start our day we walked a few blocks from our apartment to a small cafe called Farggi. It was a typical European cafe. Choices of coffee drinks, fresh juice, and pastries. This one did have a nice surprise, a Gelato shop! Kelly was very excited to find out Gelato was an option for breakfast.
Typical start to the day for everyone, coffees, Cokes, and pastries.
On the Move
Our tour guide, Nicole met us at our accommodations and we were off. She had a nice Kia Van that made the driving part of the tour relaxing and enjoyable.
One of the first stops on our tour was one of Gaudi's famous homes, Casa Mila. Gaudi was a Catalan Modernist Architect that was influenced greatly by nature and his Catholicism. He felt strongly that buildings should be part of the nature they were surrounded by and should be as fluid as nature. So no straight lines or boxy square buildings for him!
Casa Mila is located in Eixample area of Barcelona. This area is known as the Beverly Hills of Barcelona, homes are expensive and the shops are world famous.
All parts of a work by Gaudi are fluid, that includes the balconies, gates and ceilings. Everything gives the impression of blowing in the wind.
Another example of the buildings and shops along the Passeig de Gracia.
After exploring the ritzy side to Barcelona it was time to hit the beach!
We learned that the beach area actually used to be the industrial area of Barcelona and was not turned into the pedestrian friendly area it is today until the late 1980s. Looking at it today with it's wide promenade, boat club and restaurants it is hard to believe as recently as 30 years ago it was warehouses and factories. Many people think it got cleaned up for the 1992 Olympics. We actually learned it was cleaned up about 15 or so years before that and Barcelona used the Olympics to advertise how they had updated their city and beach to welcome tourists.
Sagrada Família
Yep, this part of the tour was so special it gets it's own section on the blog. When booking the tour the four of us all privately thought "yeah, Ok we can go see this church. I have seen it in books and on TV and while looking different it does not seem that amazing"
After touring the church, let me tell you we were SO wrong! TV and books cannot do the colors and details that you see justice. Seeing it in person was mind blowing...how does one even dream up the things we saw let alone actually create them?
As I mentioned earlier, Gaudi was influenced greatly by nature and his Catholicism. He dedicated majority of his life working on this church. He started working on this in 1883, they are hoping it will be completed in 2026....100 years after his death.
As is the custom with most churches, the statues and art work depict bible stories. This church is no different. The church itself is broken up into three facades, The Nativity, The Passion, and the Glory. Each has statues that tell of the life of Jesus. For example the Passion depicts the birth, betrayal and death. The pillars above are to represent Jesus's ribs.
Along with being a church the site also is home to a school that Gaudi has built so the children of the builders could be educated. That building now holds a mini museum to Guadi and his life.
Before going inside, we picked up our audio device and got up close and personal with the artwork outside.
Just how many things can one man have around his neck.. for Duane it looks like the answer is three.
Yep, the building is HUGE. Duane and Tari are standing at the East entrance wall.
You Thought the Outside was Breath Taking?? You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet! Inside We Go!
The outside was very eye catching, but it had nothing on the inside and I am sorry to say even the pictures that you will see below do not do it justice. The colors, the size, everything was more than expected and best seen with the human eye.
The Nave
When entering you step into the Nave section of the church. Keeping with the inspiration from nature concept, the Nave is made up of many "tree" like columns that create a hyperboloid vault to support the heavy spires on the outside. Looking at nature he noticed that trees are able to be provide stability and support by branching off from a central trunk. This allows the support needed without having to use buttresses or other structural distraction. Also by using this design it represents the growth of an individual and reaching toward the heavens.
Following the "trees" up to the sky you also see more nature with the ceiling having a sun flower like design that is supposed to allow for more light into the Nave.
Explosion of Colors
As with most churches, there is plenty of stained glass to decorate the windows.... unlike any other church the colors of these stained windows was so vibrant they looked like someone had melted Jelly Rancher candies and spread the on the windows.
Just as with the rest of the church, Gaudi was very thought out on his plan for the windows as he placed all green and blue glass on the east side so the sun would not heat the church as it rose up through the day. He then purposely put the red and orange glass on the west side to purposely keep the church warm as the sun went down and night descended.
Duane taking in the Nave and learning a thing or two from his audio guide. |
| Duane, Gaudi, and Jamie taking in the day |
The Rest of Barcelona
After leaving the Sagrada our tour continued throughout the streets of Barcelona. We drove by the Barcelona version of the Arc de Triumph and many of the political buildings.
Bicycles are a very popular mode of transportation. You will see rental businesses and kiosks for renting bikes on almost every block.
Our tour guide, Nicole, was very knowledgeable in the history of Barcelona. Here she is explaining the history behind one of the many churches in the Gothic Quarter.
Walking the back roads of the city, it does not much look different than Italian cities we have walked through. The only difference is the Barcelona and Catalan flags hanging from balconies and windows.
The mosaic below depicts the creation of the Rambla. Today the Rambla is a well known and popular tourist attraction for souvenir shopping, dining and people watching. It actually started out as a merchant street outside the city walls.
Lunch Time = Tapas Time!
For lunch today we stopped at a tapas bar our tour guide recommended that offered a tapas special of 4 tapas pieces and a desert for 11 euro. This was set up in a typical fashion where the different tapas was placed on a bar and you choose the pieces you would like. I think we did a good job of getting different pieces.
Jamie's plate above. Duane's plate is below.
Jamie said his sardine with tuna and pepper "was freakin' good!" of course he told us this after we had left the place....
Tari's plate above, Kelly's plate below. Yep, for some reason Kelly only got three pieces
Nicole 's plate
Of course, what lunch is complete without Cava??
The dessert that was part of lunch was Catalan Creme. it is like creme brulee with the burnt sugar on top but the custard was not quite a true custard. It was a little thinner and runnier than a true custard. Either way it was still very good!
A Lil' Roma in Barcelona!
As with most of Europe, at one point or another this area was held by the Romans. We spent the afternoon following the paths of the Romans and then Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.Barcelona does a good job of showing ancient and current time in their buildings. The picture below is part of the Cathedral Barcelona. The rounded section is from Roman times and actually still has the arch of the aqua ducts attached.
Since we have been to Italy a few times some of the ruins that we saw looked familiar, for example the egg looking thing above is a wine vessel.
We were also able to tour one of the oldest buildings in Barcelona, part of the Viceroy's castle. The back court yard is where Columbus presented himself and his findings to the king and queen once he came back from the new world.
The castle also has one of the earliest examples of a coffered ceiling. It was quite impressive and very detailed.
Barcelona has a very deep devotion to St. George. As the legend has it, there was this evil dragon that kept killing and eating the citizens of Barcelona. Finally the town had enough and made a deal with the dragon that he would get their most beautiful princess if he would just go away for ever. The dragon accepted but right before the princess was to die, St. George swept in, saved the princess, and slayed the dragon. Sounds an awful lot like Game of Thrones if you ask me.
Today there is a statue of St. George in the castle and his hand print. If you place your hand in his print and your hand fits, you will have eternal good luck....I am happy to say that Tari, Jamie and Kelly are all set. Poor Duane, he did not have the same fortune as his hand did not fit. I am sure if you ask him he would say he could have told his luck was crap before putting his hand on the print.
Where did I Put that Temple?
One of the last parts to our tour was to visit what remains of an ancient Roman Temple. The columns of the temple were actually discovered inside on of the apartment complexes. The city after discovering it gave the owner a choice of opening this section to the public to view or they demolish the building so temple could be seen in a free standing form. The owner, reasonably took the first offer.
Imagine having the view from your apartment window be of what remains from a Roman Temple.... it is not an ocean view, but it is not to shabby!
With the temple they also display what they think the it may have looked like when completed. The square stone was an original marker that was located at the front of the temple.
Along with the temple, Barcelona also discovered a Roman cemetery buried under layers of the city. This would have originally been outside the city walls.
More government buildings. The bridge in these photos actually connected the tax room to the court.
At Last!
Finally after walking or driving most of the city we made our way back to the apartment to take a break before heading to dinner.... if only Duane could get the door unlocked.
We have quite the system for getting into the apartment. The lock itself it odd as the key will pop back out as you try to unlock the door and there is nothing to hold onto but the key so as one first gets used to it you feel like you are going to break off the key. The other funny thing about this is the hallway is not big enough for all four of us to stand by the door, so one of us unlocks the door while the other three line up the stairs. We look like part of the seven dwarfs.
Casa Alfonso
For dinner we did not stray to far from the apartment as there was a place called Casa Alfonso only a couple blocks away. Jamie and Kelly found it when researching the trip and funny enough, when friends Brett and Cheryl stopped in Barcelona while on a cruise, they ate here and recommended it to Duane and Tari.
It is good to see that meals in Spain also normally start with wine, meat and cheese!
So, the picture below is of red tuna in a teriyaki sauce. It was poke like, but the sauce was more sugary than we were used to. Overall it was not bad. Just different looking
In an ode to Anthony Bourdain, the group ordered blood sausage croquettes. You will notice there are only three on the plate ... Kelly was not sold on the idea of blood sausage but actually when trying them found out they were not that bad.
A little protein for dinner. Tari got the blond cow burger... interesting name and an interesting texture to the meat she said.
Duane had the rabbit... not something you normally see on a menu in America.
While the Adamason's went for land animals Kelly and Jamie stayed in the sea. Kelly tried the salt cod. Salt Cod is one of the mainstays of Barcelona meals. It was not as salty as expected, but as a little tougher then one would expect fish.
Jamie stayed true to his Seattle roots and had the mussels.
More croquettes! What is a dinner without croquettes?? These happened to be cod fritters with honey... yeah for some reason Kelly was all about the cod at dinner.
Sweet dreams!
Kelly's turn to try the door while everyone watches. She is the only thing separating the group from more wine and going to bed.
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