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Published: January 3rd 2011
It's hard to believe but it's been 19 years since the Summer Olympics made a home in Barcelona. We may be old, but if it's any consolation Barcelona is much older, and with age comes charisma and it's for that reason that you should put Barcelona on your must see cities list.
Barcelona's beauty took us by surprise. The city is filled with Gothic and Modernistic architecture (we didn't know what that meant either, but trust us it's worth seeing). Every building is different, some are wavy, some have sculptures, some have scales, some have towers, some have domes and the list goes on and on. Gaudi (a 19th century architect) is their favoured son, and his buildings, sculptures, and designs are everywhere. After visiting Barcelona we want to learn much more about him. He is well known for the massive church he designed in the centre of the city. This church is EPIC. It fills multiple city blocks, and it's like nothing you've ever seen. Gaudi began work on the church in 1883 and his vision for it is awe-inspiring. He knew he'd never finish the church in his lifetime, so he left the plans and the vision
for others to continue. It is still being built to this day, the construction is funded solely on tourist dollars and anonymous contributors.
We spent the morning and early afternoon on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour and it's well worth the price. Barcelona is a BIG city, the tour has 3 connecting double-decker bus routes (only 2 routes operate in the winter). It took us about 4.5 hours on the bus just to complete the tour and get our bearings on the city (and that's without getting off the bus for any stops). After the tour we had enough time to check out the church and walk through the Gothic area of town. We also walked “La Rambla”, which is their very famous pedestrian street that runs through the centre of the city to the port. La Rambla is filled with vendors, stores, boutiques and buskers. Their buskers were quite interesting and we spent a lot of time wandering and checking out the sights and sounds of the street... along with a million of our closest friends... maybe not a million, but the city was packed as you can likely see from the pictures.
We are lucky enough
to have 1 more stop in Barcelona at the end of our trip, we've made a list of other exciting things we plan to see, so expect another blog from this location shortly.
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don
non-member comment
Gaudi
Glad you got to see Gaudi's stuff at last. On your next time there, do try and get to the Park Guell (La Colonia Guell), unfinished as with much of his later stuff. If you didn't get there this time, do try; I know it's in the north of the city, and there is so much else to see anyway, but it's well worth it. Among other buildings there is his own house, now a tiny museum, with a lot that explains more about him. I've a number of books about him that you're welcome to borrow when you are back. Sounds as if you're having a wonderful time! HAPPY NEW YEAR!