Montjuic

J and I woke up on our last morning in Barcelona eager to return to Montjuic. We had only seen the area around the art museum the previous night, and as beautiful as the architecture was, we wanted to check out the gardens.

It was another boiler of a day as we headed into the first of the many gardens that nestle in the Montjuic area. Each garden is known for a different botanical speciality i.e. water plants, leaves and grasses, etc. We hiked from garden to garden, stopping frequently in the shade to cool off and drink some water. It was a looong and hot walk but absolutely beautiful, and we came across more than a few cats along the way, strangely enough.

We first visited the Jardins de Laribal, which was full of interesting water features.

 

 

There were also beautiful architectural details...

Then we wandered over to the Jardins de Mossen Cinto de Verdaguer, which is renowned for its water plants.

 

We also stopped in at Jardins de Joan Brossa and Jardins de Mirador on our slow and steady trek up to the Castell. We were sticky and hot by the time we reached the Castell, but the views on the way up there made it absolutely worth it.

The Castell itself wasn't bad, and J had fun in one of the lookout points.

We were tired and gross by then so we decided to take a taxi back to our hotel instead of hiking back as we planned. We arrived back in our room just in time to take another shower before we had to check out - hooray for late check out!  We made use of the free coffee voucher that we received at check-in,  and we sipped our delicious Illy coffee in the coffee bar in the hotel lobby before we had to head over to the Aerobus bus stop in front of the Corte Ingles department store to head to the airport.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, and we relaxed in the waiting area of the quietest airport I've ever been in. The airport is super clean and modern, and there are no public announcements at all. You can't imagine how nice it is to wait in absolute peace. And then we were on our way home. Damn.

From Beach to Mountain

Barcelona is a city that truly has it all - it's surrounded by beautiful beaches and mountains. We decided to take advantage of both by starting out the day at Platja Barceloneta and ending it on Montjuic.

The day started out as hot as ever, and J and I collected our beach towels from the hotel and hoofed it towards one of the busier beaches of Barcelona, La Barceloneta. It wasn't that far away, but the heat made the walk nearly unbearable. The only thing keeping me going was the thought of jumping into the waves of the Mediterranean.

The walk itself was beautiful - we came across the monument to Christopher Columbus, Port Vell and one of several beautiful paths that we could take to the beach.

It was a long, hard slog but totally worth it when I saw this:

Heaven.

J and I spied some empty lounge chairs with umbrellas, and I asked around until I figured out the protocol for renting the lot of them. Apparently, you just plop down on them until some guy comes around and takes your money from you. Sweet!

J sat around in the shade reading his book while I alternated between trying to get a tan and frolicking in the waves when I got too hot. It was amazing! Some differences though: (1) about half of the women were topless, and (2) smoking is quite popular on the beach. We were also by a large group of old men playing backgammon while basking in the sun and every so often, they'd burst into song that repeated the word "porque" (English: why). I was very amused and told J that that was what retiring was all about.

After I was done burning to a crisp, we packed up our beach things and headed further down the beach to make our lunch reservation at Can Majos, a restaurant famed for its paella. The restaurant lived up to its reputation and then some. J and I were seated on the terrace and presented with some soft bread soaked in olive oil and tomatoes and a small dish of olives while we waited for our order to arrive. We chowed down on our seafood paella when it arrived, all the while exclaiming over the crispy rice and succulent langoustines. Interesting fact: Ask for beer in Barcelona, and you'll inevitably get Estrella brand beer.

We stuffed ourselves senseless, and we decided to head back to the hotel for a proper wash up. We slowly moseyed our way back to the hotel and ended up power-napping for a few hours. Hey, that's what being on holiday is all about.

It was a bit late when we woke up, but we decided to head to Montjuic anyway. Montjuic is the home of the Olympic Stadium and a series of beautiful gardens that's west of Las Ramblas. The first thing you see when you arrive is the art museum, which was absolutely beautiful all lit up at night.

We headed towards the gardens, but we arrived a bit too late and they were locking up the gates. The security guard we came across very kindly told us that we were free to walk around to take pictures but to take care as the area got dangerous in the evening. We very gladly heeded his advice and headed back to the Museum area, where La Font Magica was about to happen.

During the evenings, the huge fountain in front of the Museum has a fantastic light and music show. It's not on every night, but we accidentally timed our visit just right to catch the show, which started at 9 PM. People were already staking out seats at least an hour in advance, but J and I managed to snag a great viewing point for the 15 minute show.

It was a fantastic end to an amazing day, and J and I agreed to return to Montjuic the next day to visit the gardens properly. Did I mention I love Barcelona?!

A Day of Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi, the father of Modernisme, shaped much of the best known architecture in Barcelona and his style was all about following nature in design, and he eschewed anything resembling a straight line. We decided to spend the entire day on just some of his best stuff.

It was shaping up to be another scorcher, and I wasn't quite sure how hot it was going to be down in the Metro. J easily convinced me to take a taxi up to Parc Guell, our first destination, but first, I needed to stop by the magic fountain on Las Ramblas that ensures that the drinker of the water would return to Barcelona since I had already fallen in love with the city.

Las Ramblas in the morning before it gets too crazy

The water from the fountains taste very "minerally"

Parc Guell dates from 1900, and it's a beautiful park situated high on a hill. The gingerbread looking buildings were inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel, and they are the first things you see.

After entering the park, there's a grand staircase leading up to the Sala Hipostila.

The place was positively crawling with people when we arrived, and we slowly wended our way up the stairs to the Sala to take refuge in its shade. It was originally designed as a marketplace, but now it's crawling with tourists taking pictures of its beautifully tiled ceiling.

A word of warning: if you don't like mosaics, you will not like Gaudi cause he loved the stuff. I love it too, and I spent most of the time smiling dementedly and taking millions of pictures. But damn, it was hot - my shirt was soaked through with sweat as we stood on the main terrace above the Sala Hipostila to admire the fantastic view of the city.

The heat soon drove us to seek refuge in the shade of a palm tree, where we were heckled by one of the many angry parakeets that live in the park.

We took a quick stroll to look around before we decided that neither of us wanted to die of heatstroke.

 

Our next stop: La Pedrera on Passeig de Gracia. La Pedrera is another of Gaudi's creations that was built in 1905-1910.

Further down the street: La Casa Batllo, which is one of the three funny-looking Modernisme houses that are together called la Manzana de la Discordia (Apple Block of Discord). Gaudi designed only La Casa Batllo, and and the other two were by other Modernisme architects.

The other buildings of La Manzana:

Casa Amatller

Casa Lleo Morera

Honestly though, I came across so much beautiful architecture in Barcelona that as amazing as Gaudi's buildings are, I admired many other buildings almost as much.

Until I saw the Sagrada Familia, considered Gaudi's masterpiece. All of the travel forums warned me that the queues for the mother of them all would be horrendous so I was sure to buy advance tickets for the main event.

As for La Sagrada Familia... there are no words. And there are no pictures that could ever do it justice. You just have to go. It's been under construction for over 100 years, and it still won't be finished for another 20 or so years.

The western exterior with bronze doors:

 

The interior:

 

 

 

 

 

The southern entrance:

The main entrance:

 

J and I spent the full hour that we were allotted wandering around the church, and it was just amazing. By the end of our tour of La Sagrada Familia, we were tired and dirty and too glad to hop into a cab to head back to the hotel. Once there, we fell into our usual routine of hot shower, room service, and zonking out.