Barcelona - 18-23rd March 2012
I am back from My holidays (unfortunately). Barcelona was a magnificent city! I loved every minute. It was completely not what I expected at first but I was pleasantly surprised. I always thought Barcelona wasn't as advanced or as wealthy as some countries but how wrong was I...Completely!
The city is very cultured and it reflects in the surroundings. The Architecture is astonishing, such beautiful places to look at, the people were extremely friendly and were very patient with us as we couldn't speak the language and it wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be. I felt at home in this City.
We found that the best way to get around and see everything was to take the Open top bus (Barcelona Bus Turistic) as one ticket provided you with three routes. This covered all the major sightseeing attractions. We found this very worth while as we practically saw the City in two days, this gave us time to explore the shops and La Rambla for a day.
We were very lucky with the Weather as we had glorious sunshine for three of the days we were there, It rained one day and was overcast the other day. I found it particularly harder to explore on the rainy day as everything is quite open and I got soaked. It was a little uncomfortable walking around the Picasso museum with wet squishy boots. So if you are planning to go to Barcelona I would recommend a REALLY comfortable pair of shoes that are waterproof and a thin rain jacket as it can be quite mild in temperature too.
The Sagrada Familia is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is currently incomplete and relies on the public to fund this building. Each ticket sold goes towards the continuous construction of this masterpiece. The proposal for the finished article is 2030. Gaudi devoted his last years to this building but less than a quarter of it was finished by the time he died in 1926.
The two images above were taken in the only finished room before Gaudi died. The detail around the door is amazing.
I love the use of different coloured stone in the columns and the way the shape changes from top to bottom. I think Gaudi was remarkable, to have such a inspiring vision of nature and to use that as imaginatively as he did to make these magnificent masterpieces.
In 1992, Barcelona Hosted the Olympics. We went to see the Olympic Village and I thought it was great. It was such a relaxed atmosphere I could've stayed there all day.
We also went to the Aquarium, which is supposed to be the biggest in the Mediterranean. This brought out the big child in me, It was really good. I got to see some sharks swim above my head when I was on the conveyor belt.
We also found a lovely patisserie shop. When I went to France as a little girl I fell in love with one specific cake. It was a tart with a pastry case, custard, a layer of sponge cake with more custard on top, then topped off by strawberries, (Unfortunately they don't do the same ones in Britain). They are my all time Favourite and when I go to France I buy loads of them and practically eat them all in a day or two. I was so excited when I saw them in a little boutique looking patisserie. These ones had a chocolate case to them too!! I bought two for myself and my boyfriend thought he'd try some as well.
These made my Day!!
I really enjoyed visiting Barcelona, and would love to go back again. The only downside was that my boyfriend and myself experienced the pick pocketers! As we were heading to the Airport on the way home they got us, but my boyfriend was extremely vigilant and caught them at it! So we were very lucky to not have lost anything. Word of advice be weary of your surroundings and be vigilant at all times!
