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Published: November 24th 2014
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Today was a first in that I was served a beer in a glass that resembled a rather large fishbowl on a stem. I would have been impressed, but I had only 20 minutes to drink it, having expected the usual less-than-half-pint effort you generally get when not drinking in the UK. I could have used it as a diving helmet had I been able to keep it and at 9euros for one beer (albeit a big one), I think I should have kept the glass! Glyn and I do usually know better than to drink in a touristy area, but sore feet stole us away from our better judgement.
The day started with a fail in that we went to the Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau which was where Guadi died and ceased functioning as a hospital in 2010. From the outside it looked impressive and it had been given good reviews. But despite my guidebook and the internet saying it was open, there was no English tour until midday and I've no idea if we were allowed in self-guided, the people at the desk were grumpy and unhelpful, so we pursued it no further.
After stopping for one of the best ice creams I have ever had EVER (chocolate, lemon and strawberry cheesecake flavours) we took the metro from the Sagrada Família which was nearby and down to the Monjuïc Funicular which was closed but there was a bendy bus instead. Next was an expensive cable car ride up to the Castell de Monjuïc which was ok as castles go..... it had your usual castle type history....old....battles.....up a hill...... lots of people died etc etc. As it goes, this one had a rather dark past even for a castle as it ended up being a place of torture and terror for the locals rather than protecting them.
Back down the hill and over a park we got to the Olympic stadium which was a lot smaller that I expected. Glyn reckons it holds 60,000, but it just wasn't olympic enough for me. We had a bit of rain during all this but it wasn't so bad as most of the time it has been very warm at over 20 degrees.
It was after this we walked to the Rambla to meet up for a 'free' walking tour with Discover Walks. I'd
stumbled across this in Trip Advisor and heard it was good - it's up to you if you pay anything but on the website it said minimum recommended tip was 11 euros each.
Our guide was a young lady called Patricia and apart from us, there were just two Australians, so a nice small group. We were led through narrow and warren-like streets of Barri Gotic, stopping to hear tales of the past, seeing bullet holes and bomb damage to the walls. We heard about Picasso and how his first famous painting was not of French ladies as normally thought, but Catalan prostitutes. We were also interested to hear of current affairs such as the Catalan unofficial referendum and how they had been watching the unfolding of events during the recent Scottish Referendum. Patricia was born and bred in Barcelona, so had her own views on it, and her grandparents had passed on stories of hard times living under Franco rule and times when speaking Catalan was banned.
By the end of the 90 minute tour I was struggling to concentrate as that bowl of beer and gone through me and I was in agony. There are no
public toilets in Barri Gotic but Patricia did get a fellow tour guide to take us to a mate's cafe where I gratefully filled another bowl. We tipped more than the 11 euros because it was totally worth it and had I more time, I would do another tour with Patricia.
Afterwards we went to Barcelona Cathedral as it is free after 5.15pm. It's big and ornate but nothing really after you've seen the Sagrada Família and I'm glad we didn't pay to get in.
The day ended with a standard meal in the Ramblas, our own fault for trying to eat cheap in the most touristic area of the entire city.
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