Our big day in Barcelona didn't start too well, when we got off the
bus at the wrong stop. The area that we hopped off at looked pretty
damm fancy, and huge - you can't blame us for thinking we had reached
the city centre - Placa de Catalunya. Instead we had only made it as
far as Placa d'Espanya.
Anyway, down one of the streets was a rather grand looking building
sitting up on a hill. This looked like it was worth investigating, so
off we went!! Getting to the top of the hill, we got our first views
of the huge mass of a very densely populated Barcelona. A 5 minute
walk along the hill, and we came across our 2nd Olympic stadium of
this trip!! The things you find when you get off at the wrong bus
stop :-)
Home to the 1992 Olympic games, Barcelona's Montjuïc Stadium doesn't
quite stand up to the grand size of what I imagine the Sydney or
Beijing Olympic stadiums to be. But I wonder if you can go inside
and have a look round for free there? We got a great photo of me
pretending to shoot the flaming arrow up to the Olympic cauldron (if
you recall the opening ceremony and how they got the flame up into the
cauldron) - but then seeing a picture of the actual event, we realised
there were two cauldron looking things high up above the stadium, and
we were shooting at the wrong one :-( The angle was all wrong for a
second take.
Down the hill, past the diving stadium that gave more great views of
the city, then down to the port area and the bottom end of Barcelona's
famous Las Ramblas street.
After checking out the Monument a Colon - a tall statue of Columbus,
we started making our way up Las Ramblas past everything from street
performers, food stalls, artists, souvenir shops, restaurants, flower
shops, news kiosks. In fact I think if you name it, they probably got
it. Except of course we still couldn't find a personalised named
souvenir with Marea's name (spelt properly of course) - I thought
Spain would be the place where Marea's name wouldn't be so unique!!
To either side of Las Ramblas are mazes of streets with shops which go
on forever. This would have kept Marea happy...if she was on her own,
sadly for her my patience for trolling through rows of clothes and
shoes does not exist!!
A must in Barcelona is to check out the work of the eccentric
architect Antoni Gaudí. After a longer than expected walk through the
streets, we found his masterpiece - La Sagrada Família. With piles of
'fruit' placed on top of the spires, little bridges erected high up
with solo religious figures sitting on them, the spires themselves
looking like space rockets, and futuristic looking 'legs' supporting
the bottom of the church. This late 19th century church looks like
something from the future, even though it official architecture style
is classed as neo-gothic.
Finally, to finish our exhausting day of walking (why is walking in
cities so much harder than walking mountains?), dinner was a
traditional Spanish dish - Paella. Rice fried up with seafood and
sauce - mmmm not bad. Although next time we go out for dinner, we
will have to sample another Spanish staple - Tapas!!
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