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Published: June 24th 2011
Stairway to ... Parc Guell
An idea of the stairs and escalators we had to climb to get to Parc GuellWe had thought originally of going to Montserrat, a pretty much all day affair, but we hadn't seen the key sights in Barcelona yet, except for La Rambla. So, out we went, by about 9am, and first headed for the Parc Guell, a showcase of Antoni Gaudi's work. We took the metro from Paral-lel to Villcarca on the L3 towards Triniat Nova (For you folks who might like an idea of how to get to Parc Guell from La Rival area). The metros cost about 1.45 Euros for a one-time 90 minute ride. we got off at the right station, and after a brief moment of lostness, rectified by a nice old Spanish lady (the park is off the top of our map, so...), we saw the stairs/escalators up to the park. You have to ride 2 or 3 escalators, then climb a few flights of stairs, then another few escalators, followed by another few flights of stairs, and your there. Parc Guell is named after the patron family that sponsored Antoni Gaudi, giving him money and the freedom to design and build whatever moved him. Although he seems to have an unusual eye for design, a lot of his stuff
Barcelona from Parc Guell
Barcelona from the Parc Guell (You can see the Sagrada Familia just beside Alexis's head) is quite good. In Park Guell, besides the nice paths and plantlife, is an area half covered by the worlds longest continuous bench. There are a number of other Gaudi touches, such as what I call his "wave cave", a corridor designed to look like your were on a surfboard inside "the tube," along with his famous lizard, its accompanying staircase, and of course a gift shop. The park is a really cool place to visit. After taking a goodly number of photos, we decided our next stop was going to be the Sagrada Familia, a still unfinished cathedral started by Gaudi in something like 1898. He was killed by a tram in 1926 I believe, and ever since, Barcelona has made trams illegal in the city. Since they apparently had his designs, the work continues. It is the most awesome looking cathedral you will ever see, even unfinished. They have some scaffolding and a couple of cranes on/around it which kind of detract a bit, but still... When we finally reached the ticket window, we followed the line down the block, around the block, and around the next block, and decided to try to come back another time to
Gaudi Bench, most of it anyways
The area with the long bench, which wouldn't all fit into the photo go in!
Our next stop was Casa Mila, another Gaudi creation, and a very cool looking house. We didn't go in, since the entry fee was a bit steep at 8.50 Euros for viewing the inside of a house, when the outside is what is really cool. It was lunchtime by this time, so we found a really neat place called Els Pintxes ... something, where they offered something like 50 different Basque pinchos/tapas, all at 1.50 Euros up to 2.15 Euros each. So many of them looked delicious, I just picked four in a row, 10 thru 13. All of mine were delicous, as were those of Manoli and Alexis, and they were even bigger than I'd expected for the money. It was so good, we might eat there again when we return from Andorra. After lunch, we checked out the three houses in a row on a block called Manzana de la Discordia (or Apple of Discord), including Casa Batilo by Antoni Gaudi, Casa Lleo Morera, and Casa Amatlier by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. All three architects were trying show off their individual styles and so they are each very different in appearance. After taking some photos,
Pretty Ladies on a Pretty Bench
Manoli and Alexis sitting on Gaudi's record-setting bench we strolled back on down to La Rambla for some more shopping. Being about 3pm, we decided to head back to our nearby hostel for some rest, during which I charged my computer and read my book. Manoli did laundry in the hostel, and then we all agreed we'd like to try for dinner a cute place we'd seen along the way called Wok to Walk, serving stir-fry. We each got a carry out box of rather good stir-fry, for about 6 or 7 Euros each, and took it back to the hostel to eat.
Tomorrow we head to the tiny country of Andorra for a two night stay in their capital city (if you can call it a city) of Andorra La Vela. We catch the Aerobus to Terminal 1 of the Barcelona airport, then pick up our Novatel bus there for the trip. It should take about 3 hours and they will drop us off right in front of our hostel.
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