Barcelona

Barcelona definitely makes the top of our list of places we saw. It would be impossible to turn down an opportunity to see it all over again. It's a magical city where every single building and neighborhood is beautiful. It also served as the parting point between us and our new friend Ralph. Shortly after arriving at our cute hotel, we had to return our little VW. It was a little sad, but Stu seemed pretty relieved.

It didn't take us long to get out into the city and start seeing its sights. We made our way down to La Rambla, which is a popular street, full of shops, restaurants, hotels, and landmarks. The plaza at the top of the street is capped with gorgeous twin fountains (although only one was operational during our visit). Side streets along La Rambla open up into quaint little plazas, or show impressive or unique buildings. One of these streets was home to a wax museum, which was protected by Superman and C-3PO.

We waited until morning to continue our adventure, and we started exactly where we left off. La Rambla is an entirely different sight during the day. The boulevard is filled with kiosks. Some sell flowers, some sell books. They have souvenirs and pets (birds and rabbits and other such things). The local talent come out to make a living. There is an abundance of buskers and living statues (and the occasional drug dealer, who is surprisingly forward). Also, La Boqueria (the market in the middle of La Rambla) is packed with people picking up groceries, or just a snack.

We headed out of La Rambla into the old town, originally referred to as Barcelo. The cathedral was first on the list. It was not the most impressive we've seen, but it still held an awe-inspiring quality. Mostly, I think, in the attention to detail. We strolled around the old town, seeing the government building (of the Catalan), which was scarred from shell blasts of the civil war. We climbed to the highest point in Barcelo, Mont Taber, not more than 17m above sea level. Of course, Barcelona has many higher points inside the new city limits.

We made our way out to the Palace of Music, which was an amazingly colorful theatre. It's used mainly for a theatre, but it has an addition which serves as an educational institute for the performing arts. From there we walked over to the "Arc de Triomf" which was quite impressive with it's gorgeous surrounding promenade. The next stop before the beach was the chocolate museum. It was an informative and delicious look at the history of chocolate. There were some amazing chocolate sculptures as well. But, nothing was as amazing as how wonderful that museum smelt. It was a good thing the entry tickets were made of chocolate, otherwise the sculptures would have gone missing.

Off to the beach, where, on the boardwalk, Stu tried authentic Spanish Sangria for the first time. We drank a jug of it, then walked along the beach. The sand was soft and white and the beach was surprisingly busy for late october. Understandable though, since it was 24 C. Our original plan was to take the cable car up to Montjuic and see the view of the city as well as see the olympic stadium and wander around. Unfortunately, we were just a few moments late to take the cable car, we didn't know it held such ridiculously short hours closing before 6pm! So we took a cab over to Plaza de Espana. We enjoyed some drinks, watched the fountains for a while and admired the view before making our way home.

The next day was filled with the works of Gaudi. He was a visionary architect who made his home in Barcelona. He's responsible for what are known as the "modernist" styles seen all over this beautiful city. His works are unique and inspired, and I would recommend visiting them if you get the chance. We saw Casa Mila, which is hard to describe, but definitely unique. The defining quality that stuck with me was it's rooftop and how the chimneys resembled ice cream. Next on the Gaudi tour was the infamous unfinished church, La Sagrada Familia. It was Gaudi's last work and is expected to be finished by 2026. It's an amazing sight, and in our opinion one of the most interesting buildings in the world. It's truly an intricate and insane design with an incredible attention to detail. We can't wait to see it when it's complete. (It will be a good excuse to get back to Barcelona!)

Our last stop before jetting off to Amsterdam for the evening of Halloween was Gaudi's Park Guell. It was originally designed to be an enclosed living community, but was an idea before its time and flopped as a living community. However, Gaudi built his pink house there and it became an awe-inspiring park. There was tile and rock structures galore including a glamourous main entrance with tiled walls, small houses and towers, a grand staircase and cute dragon fountain. At the top of the grand staircase there was a hall of columns with amazing tile patterns on the roof. In the summer, this is generally where a large market could be found. Also at the top, there was a large meandering wall that functioned as an ergonomic bench covered from top to bottom in all sorts of tile. All over the park were musicians, awesome rock structures, and plants of all varieties. It was well worth the adventure up the LARGE hill to get there.

All and all, Barcelona is one amazing place!

Hasta la proximá vez,

Kathlene and Stu