The last stop on our tour of Spain & Portugal (not to mention our last big city adventure sans baby) was Barcelona. Unfortunately it started out less than ideal...
We were hoping to get a solid half day of sightseeing in as we arrived early afternoon from Lisbon, but that idea quickly got wiped out. After what seemed like forever to get out of the airport and to the train that would take us to the city center, we safely secured two seats on a very crowded train. Perhaps that was our first mistake. Upon arriving at what we thought was our stop and trying to push our way through the crowded train I was able to get off the train, but Steve was not. A few people tried to help keep the door open so Steve could get out but were unsuccessful and there I was left standing on the platform as Steve and the train kept going to the next stop! To my surprise I was incredibly calm about the entire situation and lucky for us both of us had working cell phones (although mine charges ridiculous roaming fees outside of Switzlerand). After a few texts and calls we managed to meet up at the next station after we realized the one I had gotten off at was actually not the one we wanted. We were happy to be together again but that was not our only mishap on the day as we entered the subway and somehow managed to get on the wrong line. I really believe that to date on our adventures we have done a great job navigating public transportation across many different cities and kind of pride ourselves on what a good job we do. As a result I like to blame our troubles of that first day in Barcelona on their train & subway system. It is definitely one of the larger, more elaborate systems we have been in, but it was also one of the more poorly marked systems with many short disjointed lines. And everytime we had to change lines it seemed that we walked just as far as we actually rode on the subway. Oh well, we survived and still managed to go everywhere we wanted to, but needless to say when we had to go back to the airport the day we left we opted to take the slow bus that went direct from our hotel to the airport!
After all of our troubles we decided to call it an early night and get a fresh start early the following day. Our first stop was one of almost every other Barcelona tourist as well, the Sagrada Familia. Although we got there well before the doors opened we were still met by a long line, but one that was well worth the wait. This enormous Catholic church is still not complete, although construction was started in 1882 it is projected to not be finished until 2025. It was primarily designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi who worked on it for 35 years until he died. Although I did not know much about Gaudi prior to traveling to Barcelona I now have a profound appreciation for the amazing work he did. Aside from visiting the Sagrada Familia we also visited Casa Battlo and walked by several other buildings that Gaudi designed, each one extremely fascinating. But without a doubt the Sagrada Familia topped our visit and is worth a visit for anyone in the near area. It is difficult to capture the beauty and enormity of this church in photos so here is also a link to a video we took in addition to photos:
http://youtu.be/CLzyj9z9uWs
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| Ceiling of the Sagrada Familia |
As it did happen to be Good Friday we also visited several other churches and cathedrals in the area. It was very interesting that none of these churches closed their doors to tourists even during their services. We may have stayed for mass, but not knowing Latin nor Catalonian Spanish (which Steve informed me is actually a distinctly different version of Spanish then the one that most Americans are taught in school), we decided to just have a quick peek inside each one.
We also saw Barcelona's smaller version of the Arc de Triomf. It was nice, but certainly lacked the grandeur and splendor of the larger more famous one in Paris.
Our first day also included a trip down the famous Ramblas, which is known for its historic buildings, street vendors, artists, and eateries. In addition we saw the magic fountains (think Bellagio fountains), which draws crowds of people every Friday and Saturday night to watch this 10 minute performance in front of the National Palace.
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| View of the towering Sagrada Familia from afar |
On our second day we spent more time enjoying the perfect weather and strolling through several beautiful parks in the city as well as visiting some of Barcelona's Olympic venues. It was a relaxing way to spend the last day of our week's vacation. Not to mention we did some good eating. As I mentioned before we tasted a few tapas when we were in Madrid, but the best tapas were definitely found in Barcelona. We enjoyed trying many different things like fried and stuffed peppers, more squid, and more varieties of finger sandwiches than we thought possible. One of my favorites was a restaurant where you just walked up to the bar lined with these little sandwiches and took whatever you liked, when you were finished the waiter simply counted up the number of toothpicks on your plate (each sandwich had one in it) to determine how much to charge you!
Finally, to end the stories of our travels to Spain and Portugal I'll highlight a few more good and bad moments...
- Good - I concluded that if you are pregnant in Spain they considered you handicapped. Normally I wouldn't appreciate this designation, but let's just say on their often crowded and hectic subway systems there was never a time that I was without a seat. Every time there wasn't one available someone would stand up for me to the point where I would try to say no if we were only on it for one or two stops, but they would not accept no for an answer!
- Bad - Their often crowded subways meant that for the first time we believe someone honestly attempted to pickpocket our camera bag. Lucky for us the one pocket that was easily accessible we never put anything inside of it. However, it definitely reminded us to be on the look out and it can happen to anyone no matter how careful you are!
- Good - We found 10 Euros on the sidewalk in Barcelona! It's not very often we have such good luck and last time Steve thought he found money somewhere on the sidewalk it was a prank as someone pulled it away on a string as he tried to pick it up!
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| Perfect last day in Barcelona! |
We were hoping to get a solid half day of sightseeing in as we arrived early afternoon from Lisbon, but that idea quickly got wiped out. After what seemed like forever to get out of the airport and to the train that would take us to the city center, we safely secured two seats on a very crowded train. Perhaps that was our first mistake. Upon arriving at what we thought was our stop and trying to push our way through the crowded train I was able to get off the train, but Steve was not. A few people tried to help keep the door open so Steve could get out but were unsuccessful and there I was left standing on the platform as Steve and the train kept going to the next stop! To my surprise I was incredibly calm about the entire situation and lucky for us both of us had working cell phones (although mine charges ridiculous roaming fees outside of Switzlerand). After a few texts and calls we managed to meet up at the next station after we realized the one I had gotten off at was actually not the one we wanted. We were happy to be together again but that was not our only mishap on the day as we entered the subway and somehow managed to get on the wrong line. I really believe that to date on our adventures we have done a great job navigating public transportation across many different cities and kind of pride ourselves on what a good job we do. As a result I like to blame our troubles of that first day in Barcelona on their train & subway system. It is definitely one of the larger, more elaborate systems we have been in, but it was also one of the more poorly marked systems with many short disjointed lines. And everytime we had to change lines it seemed that we walked just as far as we actually rode on the subway. Oh well, we survived and still managed to go everywhere we wanted to, but needless to say when we had to go back to the airport the day we left we opted to take the slow bus that went direct from our hotel to the airport!
After all of our troubles we decided to call it an early night and get a fresh start early the following day. Our first stop was one of almost every other Barcelona tourist as well, the Sagrada Familia. Although we got there well before the doors opened we were still met by a long line, but one that was well worth the wait. This enormous Catholic church is still not complete, although construction was started in 1882 it is projected to not be finished until 2025. It was primarily designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi who worked on it for 35 years until he died. Although I did not know much about Gaudi prior to traveling to Barcelona I now have a profound appreciation for the amazing work he did. Aside from visiting the Sagrada Familia we also visited Casa Battlo and walked by several other buildings that Gaudi designed, each one extremely fascinating. But without a doubt the Sagrada Familia topped our visit and is worth a visit for anyone in the near area. It is difficult to capture the beauty and enormity of this church in photos so here is also a link to a video we took in addition to photos: http://youtu.be/CLzyj9z9uWs
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