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Published: March 13th 2008
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Sunny days in Spain.
The harbor in Barcelona. We rolled into the southern coast of Spain from France and into the coastal city of Barcelona. We found a great little hostel just off the popular Las Ramblas which is one of the main streets in the city.
At the start of our first day we were greeted by sunny skies and warm temperatures for the first time since we left Athens. For the first time in what seemed like forever we didn’t have to wear our jackets during the day, which was amazing.
After a short ramble down Las Ramblas we came upon the harbor and the monument to Columbus- the Mirador de Colon. After enjoying the sun around the harbor area we headed to the Reials Drassanes, the medieval dockyards, and the Maritime Museum. The museum is housed in the 13th century ship building docs just off the harbor and has an extensive collection of models and ships from across the centuries. Walking through the exhibit really makes you appreciate how important the sea has been to the Spanish people and how important the Spanish were to exploration on the sea. We finished off the day with some great tapas at one of the restaurants on Las Ramblas.
We traveled a little further a field the next day and headed up to the Parc Guell which sits in the hills in the Garcia district of the city. The parc was designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi in the early 1900’s and contains great mosaic pieces that Gaudi designed. From the park we had a great view over the city where we could see another one of Gaudi’s works, the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia which was our next stop of the day.
The massive Roman Catholic church is a major landmark of the city and one of Gaudi’s greatest works. Construction was stared in 1882 and is supposed to continue until 2026. When completed the building is supposed to have a total of 18 towers, with the tallest one being 170m tall. The whole things is a massive undertaking and when completed will be an amazing building. The exterior design is in typical Gaudi style and looks a little like the church that Dr. Seuss built but it was still very impressive in style and size.
In the afternoon we headed down to the Cathedral La Seu and the Gothic Quarter of the city. This area
of the city is filled with narrow cobbled streets and great old buildings including Romans ruins. It was also in this area that we went to the Picasso Museum. The museum had on display both works from Picasso’s personal collection as well as some of his great works. We finished the day with some great paella.
On our last day in Barcelona we headed to the Montjuic and the castle that rests on the top of the hill. We took the funicular and then the teleferic (gondola) up the side of the hill to the top for a great view of the city and harbor from the top of the castle. After checking out the city from the top we headed down the hill passing the Olympic stadium, Palau Nacional, and Poble Espanyol (Spanish Village) on the way back down.
Our next stop in Spain was the capital of Madrid. We stayed in another great hostel just of the Puerto del Sol. This popular square is filled with vendors, shops and several great statues including the statue of a bear eating from a madrone tree which is the symbol of Madrid. Just off of this square we found another one
of the famous squares of the city- the Plaza Mayor. This big square has seen it all- bull fights, executions, political rallies, weddings, and a lot more. The plaza is surrounded by three-story buildings including the Casa de la Panaderia which once housed the offices of the baker’s guild.
We headed further down the Calle Mayor to the Plaza de la Villa where we saw some great examples of Spanish architecture. The square is surrounded by the Torre de Los Lujanes from the 15th century, the Casa de Cisneros from the 16th century, and the Ayuntamiento which was started in the 17th century but remodeled in a Baroque style.
From here we moved on to our last stop of the day which was the Cathedral de la Almudena and the Palacio Real- the official residence of the King of Spain. We toured the huge palace but only saw a few of the 2800 rooms that make up the over 1,000,000 ft2 of the palace. The rooms that we did see were filled with ornate chandlers, tapestries, furniture from several different eras, and even a display of the amazing silver and china used in the huge dinning room. The throne room
was a great highlight too.
After a four day break in Portugal (see the next blog) we came back to Madrid for a few more days of checking out the town. We wanted to get to at least one of the great museums they have in the city so we chose the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The museum has a great collection of Spanish artists and also had a great temporary exhibit of Picasso’s work. This temporary exhibit was a great supplement to the collection already at the museum which includes his famous Guernica. This painting is a great piece depicting and in response to the 1937 bombing in the city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War that killed and injured thousands of people. In addition to the Picasso works, there were some great pieces by Dali and other Spanish artists.
We finished up our time in Madrid wandering around the great streets of the city checking out some of the historic buildings like the Banco de Espana, the Palace de Communicaciones, and the Edificio Metropolis. Our last images of Spain were the fields, villages, and town that we passed as we took the train to the
northern coast and onto our next destination, France.
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