Barcelona…a side trip on the road trip

barcelona 12

From Narbonne we set out south and stayed off the toll roads. We only had 300 km to go and most of the road was secondary highway.

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.59.22 PM

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.58.02 PM

Arriving at the Spanish border we found the usual outlet malls and cross border shoppers, but here there were numbers of gaudily dressed prostitutes standing at the rest stops and round abouts waiting for the truckers I would guess. Border towns are sketchy everywhere but this was one of the worst we have seen in a while.

barcelona 1

Southwest of Girona we got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean! Arriving to Barcelona we had forgotten the mayhem of the scooter drivers in Spain! They buzz around you like flies. That said we arrived to our hotel and met up with Fernanda. It was so funny we had kept the visit a surprise for her parents. We posted the helmet pic with no comment on facebook. Mario saw it and called Fernanda, who when she skyped us was so excited she totally for got how to speak English!

11214284_10153525869846131_2886453210861377242_n

 

12115923_10153525905326131_894111713299356178_n

Walking to the metro we passed our first Gaudi modernista building. We did a bit of a tour of several of the big squares.

barcelona 3

barcelona 31

barcelona 4

barcelona 6

barcelona 2

12096518_10153534848386131_8513062218054210623_n

11214039_10153534847831131_2247638009581832535_n

barcelona 7

barcelona 8

barcelona 9

barcelona 12

barcelona 11

barcelona 13

barcelona 10

Since we are only here two days we opted for touring the city on the hop on hop off bus. We did this all day and really only scratched the surface, but we will have to come back next year on the way to Italy to really see the sights.

barcelona 19

barcelona 25

barcelona 49

barcelona 78

Luckily with a teen we had wifi!

barcelona 24

The architecture is varied and interesting, especially the Gaudi and other “modernism”.

barcelona 20

barcelona 21

barcelona 22

barcelona 23

barcelona 30

barcelona 32

DSC03796

DSC03797

Modernism???

barcelona 47

barcelona 50

barcelona 54

The old town center

barcelona 52

barcelona 53

barcelona 74

Lunch Spanish style is drinks and Paella.

barcelona 55

barcelona 56

The Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sacrada Familia is a UNESCO site still under construction. The building began in 1882 and Gaudi took over in 1883 and transformed it to his vision. It was only ¼ complete when he died in 1926. It has progressed slowly since it is funded by private donation and building was halted for the Spanish civil war from 1936-39. It was half done in 2010 and should be completed in 2026, 100 years after Gaudi’s death.

barcelona 37

barcelona 40

barcelona 42

barcelona 43

barcelona 44

barcelona 46

We did a bit of a walking tour in the old city. This included the Cathedral and the old city walls.

DSC03777

barcelona 59

barcelona 60

DSC03782

barcelona 62

barcelona 65

barcelona 66

barcelona 70

barcelona 71

 

barcelona 68

Fernanda took us to a Pizza place she claimed was the best she had every had….She was not wrong. It’s a good thing we don’t live near here.

barcelona 83

This entry was posted in Spain. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *