Barcelona: Sightseeing

So today was our free day to roam the city. A few of us decided to take the hop on hop off bus to see the city since things seemed to be a bit more spread out than they were in Paris. This was a great way to see the whole city I thought, because even when not seeing actual sights we were still able to overlook the charm of the city during our drive.

The first stop was Sagrada Familia which we had seen briefly the day before. We didn't get a chance to go in because the lines were just too long, and we didn't feel like waiting, as there were many more sites to see in such a short period of time. I plan and hope to make it back to Barcelona, and Europe in general, to experience these cities a bit longer on my next trip.  We then went on to see the three Casas (houses) designed by Antoni Gaudi, who is a Spanish Architect whose work is widely seen throughout Barcelona:  1) Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, and Casa Calvet.

Casa Mila

   

Casa Batllo

 







Then we were off to Parc Güell, which is a park that was established based on designs by Gaudi and you can see his influences throughout.

Midway through our tour we stopped at La Rambla which is the Main Street in Barcelona. This street has shops, and cafes during the day, and is where the nightlife is when it gets dark. It's also one of the streets known for those infamous pickpockets. So everyone was being really careful as we wandered around here.

While on La Rambla, we decided to try the Spanish Tapas for lunch, I got some chorizo in a red wine sauce. Unlike in the US, where tapas are super small these come with a decent helping. We also stopped by the St. Joseph's (La Boqueria)  market which is located on La Rambla. This market is basically an outdoor fresh market....you can get meat, fresh fruit, chocolates, etc. Unfortunately because we couldn't keep fruit in our rooms, we couldn't buy much. We did however decide to buy these drinks called Zumos, which are fresh fruit juices!!! They are so good and so cheap!  Yum!

Our tour continued and took us past Placa de Catalunya, Palau Reil, Palau Nacional, as well as past the Parc Olympia which was built in 1992 for the Olympics.

We also stopped by the famous Barcelona Stadium (FC Barcelona) which was swarming with fans because their was a game going on an an initiation of one of the players into some hall of fame, so there was a lot of excitement abound!

 

We also went to a famous castle and a town center called Espanya. We also saw a statue of Christopher Columbus right down near the port, and he was wearing his Barça shirt to support the soccer team too!  :)

We saw many sights on our tour, these were just some of them, but there were 3 different routes, and we went on two of them. 

After our bus tour we got dropped back off at La Rambla and just hung out there and ate paella and drank sangria, for dinner as well as shopped for some souvenirs!!!

Seafood Paella- YUM!

Most of the museums and tourist sights were closed since we were there on a Sunday and Monday which is like their weekend. That was unfortunate but I've been enjoying my European sampler of the cities! Will definitely have to come back to visit Spain! One thing I really loved about spain is how quaint the city was, and how pretty the houses and buildings were. Almost every house had a window box with flowers in it, and just had a great charm to it. I have to say though, as much as most people rant and rave about Barcelona, it did not turn out to be my favorite city on this trip, although I did enjoy the nightlife and sights.