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Published: August 31st 2017
Hello my fellow travellers!
Me and Ante had a leisure start on this day with plenty of time before our bus back to Andorra was leaving so we slept in for a while and then we headed to the same cafe we went to yesterday and ate some more of his delicious baguettes. We saw a lot of the same people there as we did yesterday so that place seems to have a lot of regulars which is very understandable.
With some breakfast under our belts we jumped on the bus and went back to Barcelona, same as on our way up we enjoyed the lovely Andorran landscape but once we came down to the lower lands we sat back with a movie until we rolled into Barcelona.
As we came into the city I noticed some really beautiful statues and what seemed to be a Roman inspired garden and I told Ante that we should start our day there and said and done. Once we got of the bus we doubled back to that place which turned out to be the
Palau Reial de Pedralbes which served as the residence for the royal family between 1919 and
1931. It is a beautiful area, partly designed by Antoni Gaudi, today would actually turn out to be a walk in the footsteps of him as his works are a prominent feature in Barcelona.
Next up we headed back to his, most likely, most famous structure, the impressive
Sagrada Familia. Unfortunately we didn't have much better luck than last time we were here. It wasn't closed, but according to staff it was sold out until after we would go home. How it can sell out is beyond me, it's not a concert, people go in and people go out, it should simply just have a flow of people and not a fixed number that can visit a day!
Well, if nothing else we did get some better pictures from the outside and seeing the inside will just have to wait for another time.
From there we took a stroll up to the
Hospital de Sant Pau, which was founded in 1401 when six smaller hospitals all merged into one. It gained it's current name in the 20th century as a wealthy banker named Pau Gil paid for the new buildings. It used to be a fully functional
hospital up until 2009, the most beautiful one I've ever seen, and it's even inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it's used as a museum and a cultural centre and I definitely recommend that you check it out!
Continuing in our path of Antoni Gaudi we went to the subway to go over to the
Casa Milà and the
Casa Batlló that are located quite close to each other. On our way there though, exiting the subway station my eyes fell on a church across the street and we decided to visit it first. It's name was
Parròquia de Sant Ramon de Penyafort, and it was actually quite nice on the inside despite it's modest exterior.
As for the
Casa Milà and
Casa Batlló we decided to only see them from the outside since they, especially
Casa Batlló, was extremely expensive to enter and had a pretty long line to come inside and neither me or Ante was all that interested. I was interested when I thought that the ticket was just to bypass the line (some weird wording on the information signs) so I was ready to wait in line but when we learned that
the entry price was still with waiting in that long line I opted out as well.
Both buildings are very interesting from the outside as well though and certainly worth casting a glance on while you're in Barcelona.
Feeling quite satisfied with out day in Barcelona we decided to make our way out to Sabadell where our new hosts Jerson and Laila, on our way to the station my eyes fell upon another building that looked interesting and it turned out to be another Antoni Gaudi building, the
Casa Calvet. They were such amazing and sweet people! Not to mention so hospitable, besides me and Ante they were also hosting an American girl, a French Canadian girl, a Brazilian guy and they also had a Spanish girl over for a CS event. The Brazilian guy however was absent the whole evening and finally came stumbling in at 4 am after the rest of us had finally gone to bed and then he kept fiddling with his phone afterwards keeping me up. I Think both Laila and Jerson was quite upset as well about that.
Other than that the evening was perfect, we played games, chatted, ate
a nice meal that Laila and Jerson prepared and had a live music show with the American girl who sang really well and there was even cuddling going on!
During it all our plans for tomorrow came together so tomorrow me and Ante along with the local girl Laia will go to Montserrat! Me and Ante had been talking about it during the day and had pretty much decided on it but when Laia offered to come with us and drive us out there the decision was very easy!
So until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Gaudi gems
What an amazing Gaudi treasure hunt you had! I'll have to add Royal Pedralbes Palace to our list for our next visit :)