Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2010
Organic
A vegetarian restaurant near La RamblaJune 11
Our train left Avignon at 6am this morning, so we were up much earlier than I would have liked. We took the first train from Avignon to Montpellier with one of the many people that like to listen to their headphones so loud that others can hear it. The next train was from Montpellier all the way to Barcelona. This was our first time on one of the Spanish trains, and not a nice one. There was another loud person on this train too, but fortunately he wasn’t right next to us. He talked for a couple hours to the women sitting across from him, even though they spoke different languages and didn’t really understand him. Then when he finally decided to listen to music, he didn’t put the headphones in his ears, and turned up the volume so he could hear it, which meant the entire car could hear it, and then he sang along loudly. Apparently his ticket wasn’t good for the whole ride though, because when they came around to check tickets for a second time as we neared Barcelona he disappeared for a bit and then reappeared after the ticket checker left, but just to
grab his things and say “adios” about ½ an hour before we got to the stop.
We got to our hotel by 1pm and when we were checking in we were told “our friends” had already checked in, so we went up to see Carson and Jenny. They were pretty tired, which is understandable considering it’s almost impossible to get any real sleep on the plane, the time change, and the fact that they arrived in the morning. I think it’s easier when you arrive in Europe from the US later in the day because then you don’t have to stay up for so long after arriving. When you arrive in the morning, you know it’s going to be a long day ahead.
First thing we did was find a place to go for lunch and explore. We purchased some 3-day metro passes and made our way down the La Rambla area to get lunch at Organic. It’s a vegetarian restaurant with some vegan options and it is all organic food. After lunch we went to the Cathedral which is in the Bari Gotic area of town. We took about an hour to look around and even took the lift
to the roof which had some great views of the city.
In the evening we went down to the coast because we want to try to go to the beach tomorrow and we want to figure out which one we like the best. We decided on Mar Bella. It has the nicest sand, refreshments, bathroom, and lifeguards. Part of it is set aside as a nude beach, but we’re still going to try it out. All the beaches in Barcelona are manmade and as we walked along the beach we saw one of the beaches being created. There was some kind of bulldozer on the beach connected to a boat in the sea not too far from the shore by a big tube. The bulldozer started spitting out huge amounts of water at first, which later turned into wet sand.
When we got back to the area by our hotel we looked around for a place to get some tapas. We figured we did a good job of keeping Carson and Jenny up as late as we could since it was around 11 when we got back to the hotel that evening.
-Molly
June 12
We started our day
by going to Park Guell designed by Gaudi. The park is on a hill and provides great views of the city. The park has a unique entrance. There are two gingerbread houses and a grand staircase, lot of colorful mosaics, and everything has a natural shape. The park was supposed to be an upscale neighborhood, but it was never completed and the city of Barcelona turned it into a public park. We hiked all the way up to the top thinking there would be a statue or something spectacular there, but there wasn’t really anything there except for a great view of Barcelona. We continued walking to another hill, which had three crosses at the top and a whole bunch of people on it. There were many musicians in the park and some of them sounded really good.
After we spent the morning in the park, we went for a lunch at a nice restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet book. Along the way, we saw another Gaudi’s masterpiece, the Casa Batllo. It was sunny and warm, great day to go to the beach. We went back to our hotel, put on some sunscreen, grabbed our swimsuits and tiny beach towels
and headed for the metro station. We were at the Mar Bella beach in less than one hour. There was a guy renting lounge chairs, but it was already close to 4 pm when we got there, and he had a flat daily rate, 6 euros per chair, which we refused to pay, so we ended up using our tiny beach towels instead. The beach was crowded, but we found a good spot right in front of a bar. They had a World Cup game on, and when there was no game on, they played some dance/chill-out music. I ordered a big mojito, which cost about the same as renting a lounge chair, but I enjoyed it a lot more. There was a mixed international crowd at the beach and also a nudist section which blended into our section, where people in swimsuits were more common. The air temperature was nice for sun tanning, but it was not hot enough for swimming in the sea. There were some people in the water, but not many. We spent about two to three hours at the beach and then took the metro back to our hotel.
We planned to go at night,
so we decided to get some quick dinner at a sandwich place and head downtown. The sandwich place was a sit down restaurant with a very nice patio. The place was fine, the food was okay, but the service took forever. A quick stop for a bite to eat turned into 2 hours and it was almost midnight when we left. At that point none of us felt like going out anymore. We went back to our hotel to get some sleep instead.
-Filip
June 13
Molly wanted to see the science museum Cosmo Caixa today and all of us thought it was a good idea. The entrance fee was only 3 euros, which is a bargain compared to what greedy catholic churches in Spain ask for and it had more to offer as well. We put our muscles to work and tested an interesting ancient irrigation tool designed over 2000 years ago called the Archimedian Pump. We also experienced how satellites work. There were 2 satellite dishes about 85 meters apart. Carson and Jenny were at one end, Molly and I were at the other end, we whispered into the satellite and the other team was able to
hear us on their end. It was amazing! The museum walk started with a point that put us about 5000 million years ago, and we followed evolution. As we walked along, we learned how the Earth, first signs of life, and the atmosphere were created. The museum had a big section which focused on illusions and explained why certain things appear the way they are. There was a section on tricks, and it showed many examples how people were being tricked in the past to believe in divine powers. There were so many things to see and play with. One could spend the entire day there. I felt like I only saw 20% of everything when we left.
After few hours in the museum we walked along La Rambla, the main artery of Barcelona, which is about one mile long. It has lots of shops, thousands of people, street performers, huge fresh produce market, and it ends in the marina. The middle of the street is a pedestrian zone, which makes it a popular place for a stroll. Molly and I went for lunch to the organic restaurant, where we ate before, while Carson and Jenny decided to eat somewhere
else.
From La Rambla, it was just a short walk to the Picasso Museum, which was free after 3 pm on Sunday. The Picasso museum in Barcelona has lot more paintings than the Picasso Museum in Antibes. The exhibition focuses mostly on his earlier work, which was completely different from the later period. After Picasso, we took the metro back to our hotel. We wrapped up the day with a nice evening walk around our neighborhood. We don’t get to see it as much, because we always walk to the Fontana metro station (the subway) and take the metro. The neighborhood has a lot of small plazas with wide variety of restaurants, cafes, and bars. Some streets can only be accessed on foot and the streets were fairly busy in the evening. I would stay in the same place again, if I ever come back to Barcelona.
-Filip
June 14
Our visit to Barcelona would not be complete without a visit to Sagrada Familia, one of the most dazzling contemporary structures in the world. Once we found out that our 3-day metro passes were not working anymore, we decided to walk there. It would be only 3 stops anyway.
Hidden Statue
in the Park. You have to pay attention. Even with a steep 12 euro admission fee, there was a long line to get in. I guess they need to get money to finish that thing somewhere. There are 4 cranes hovering outside. The cathedral looks mostly completed from the outside, but it is a total construction zone inside. We experienced first-hand what it takes to build a cathedral. The estimated completion date should be somewhere between 2025 and 2040. They have been working on it on and off for more than 100 years and it is not even close to being done. I can’t imagine how hard it was to build cathedrals in the middle ages without all the modern technology that we have.
After the visit to Sagrada Familia, we walked back to La Rambla to see El Mercado, which was not open on Sunday. It was a great place to grab something to eat. Most of the stands were selling some type of food - fruits and veggies, meat, seafood, candy, spices, nuts. There were few places that actually served hot meals and they were packed.
We decided to find a place to eat in the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of Barcelona. We walked around
View of Barcelona
from the top of Park Guell a nice Mexican Restaurant and decided to stop by for lunch. The food was pretty good, but I think the Mexican food in Salt Lake City is better. We walked along the old Marina, but the boats were not as impressive there as on the French Riviera. We watched a world cup soccer game in the evening.
-Filip
Advertisement
Tot: 0.134s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0408s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
