Touring Barcelona

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Today, Heather and I decided to get acquainted with the beautiful city of Barcelona by touring the west and east sides by the Hop On, Hop Off bus. We certainly saw many sites but due to the growth of the city around these attractions, the bus could not get up close to many of them and as a result, you got a quick glimpse of things in the distance or as we turned a corner. Many of the old sites are being restored and many of them have been turned into tourist shopping areas. Being a Saturday, the streets were full of shoppers and/tourists. Barcelona is a great city with an extended history of artists, explorers and trade. It is now the key city from which many Mediterranean cruises either begin or end. One of the high lights of the tour was seeing the Temple of the Sagrada Familia which is one of Gaudi's most popular works scheduled to be finally completed by 2025. When finished, it will be the tallest building in Barcelona. Barcelona's surge of red/yellow striped soccer jerseys along with their new colours of navy and cranberry worn by the team's fans flooded the streets along with several traffic jams to mark the end of the soccer gamed just played in the Camp Nou( F.C. Barcelona) or Barca for short.

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Photos

The Palau de Mar (Sea Palace)
Parts of the old port of Barcelona where the old trade stores of port were situated; a huge marina of ships. In the background is the tall statue honouring Christopher Columbus.

Gaudi's Temple of the La Sagrada Familia
Gaudi started his project but had an untimely death. It is considered to his most popular works. He left models of his creation which are being constructed by continuous donations. It is due to be completed by 2025 and will then be the tallest building in Barcelona.

Apartments Piled High
Throughout Barcelona, many of the buildings consist of apartments densely crowded together. The facades of the building vary according to the age of the building. Screens or blinds are pulled down to shade them from the sun. Often, laundry can be seen hanging over the balconies.

The Rambla
This is an eleven kilometre street that travels north and south through Barcelona showcasing shopping areas, museums, etc. Tourists are warned continuously about pick pockets in this area.

Old Bull Fighting Arena
Since bull fighting does not happen in this building any more, it has been renovated for other business purposes.

Game Over!
The surge of colours on the soccer-crazed fans of Barcelona as thet leave a game. Traffic jams and crowds of people made it difficult for the bus to move!