Friday morning, we started off by walking down La Rambla and into the Boqueria; we got there early so everything was really fresh. After that we walked through Placa St. Jaume where the Catalan Government and City Hall are and went into El Born area. We went to Santa Maria del Mar Church which was built during the Middle Ages when El Born neighborhood was the economical center of the city. The church was gorgeous, it was huge inside covered with stained glass windows. After that we walked down to the port passing by La Llotja (stock exchange) on the way. It was my first time down to the port since I've been here and it's a great area. This weekend it got to be about 65 degrees so it was a beautiful day, the beach was full of people. We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the beach and got Fisherman's Paella; it was really good, just a little messy because we had to de-shell all of the prawns. That whole area was called Barceloneta and it's right at the end of the city by the port and the beach.
After lunch we walked back to La Barceloneta metro station and took it to Passeig de Gracia (the main high end shopping street in Barcelona where all the rich people used to live during the Industrial Revolution). From there we saw Casa Batlló which is one of Gaudís houses he built. The building was amazing, it looked like it was out of a fairy tale. We didn't go on the tour inside but I'm going to go with Christina and Sam this week so we'll add pictures then.
From there, we walked up the street to La Pedrera, another of Gaudís apartment buildings that looks like a sea cliff right in the middle of the street. We did go inside here and got to go to the roof which offered amazing views of the city as well as an interesting rooftop layout.
From La Pedrera we took the metro to La Sagrada Familia to see Gaudís famous church. We didn't go inside as it costs 9 euros and does not have much inside, the real sight is all the symbolism of the two facades on the outside. There is so much symbolism on the outside that it could take hours to get everything in.
After La Sagrada Familia we walked back into El Born to see El Palau de la Musica de Catalonia, the huge music hall built by Domenech Montaner covered with tiles and columns. Christina, Sam, and I will also be going on a tour of the inside of that sometime this week. After that we went to the Picasso Museum and then finished our day by going home, showering, eating at 4 Gats again, and then going to Bar Marsella; an absinthe bar where Ernest Hemingway used to hang out at.
Trish and Al left on Saturday morning at noon and I rested up for the arrival of Christina and Sammy on Sunday.
They got in at 8:00AM and I met them at the airport. We all took the train back to Barcelona and then a cab from the station as they had two huge luggages each plus carry ons. To their surprise, we had to carry everything up my 4 flights of stairs. We went a little sightseeing today but I am going to let Christina and Sammy write the next few blogs about everything they saw!
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