Day 2 in Barcelona

Day 2 was just as beautiful as Day 1. Shiri masterfully navigated us to the correct bus station and after having a difficult conversation in broken Catalan and English with a very sweet old man, we boarded the bus to Montjuic. Literally translated, it means Mountain of the Jews, as there used to be a Jewish cemetery up on top of the mountain. Now there are stadiums, parks, lots of gardens, a castle, museums and fountains.

Our first stop was the Barcelona Olympic Stadium from the 1992 Olympics. Both of us were too young to remember much about those Olympics but there were some fun pictures and you could go and wander around the stadium. There were also large grounds in front of the stadiums that you could picture filled with people excited about what was about to happen in the stadiums. We could also see the pool and there were some beautiful views of the city.

We wandered through some gardens, walked up and down lots of steps, before coming to the Catalan Art Museum. It was housed in this gorgeous building but we didn't end up going in. We did walk to the other side of the museum and went down stairs and escalators (that was nice!) to the bottom, which had a large, gorgeous fountain. There was just a lot going on at the bottom of this park, including a large shopping center and a large convention center.

There was a free museum in the area as well, mostly dedicated to Modern Art. It was housed in this gorgeous building made of brick and stone and although almost nothing was in English, there were some lovely exhibits (and of course, some odd ones that we didn't understanding in the slightest....)

 

Before heading back up the stair and escalators to investigate more of Montjuic, we had to stop and get some churros. Catalan churros don't have cinnamon on them but they have the same crunchy outside and soft, warm insides. A very friendly vendor gave us some sugar to put with it, which just totally hit the spot.

 We wandered through many beautiful gardens, marveling at the views and foliage before hiking up a very large hill (kind of like when getting to Dover Castle but with more twists and turns) to get to the castle. The castle boasted some absolutely incredible views of the city and of the Mediterranean Sea but was sadly lacking in information. There was one room with a bit of info but that was in. Luckily, the views on either side made up for it. The sun was nice and warm and we sat for awhile reading "In the Garden of the Beasts" for me and "The Chaperone" for Shiri.

From the castle, we headed back down and took the bus back to La Rambla. By that point, we were starving so we found a little restaurant where we got pizza and some appetizers (chicken croquettes) and Diet Coke that totally hit the spot.

Day 1 in Barcelona

Technically the first day was arriving and walking seventeen thousand miles in layers of clothes to the room we had rented only to find that I had no idea which apartment it was and was only saved by running into another girl who also rents in the same house and having her let me in.

But it had a shower and I met Marta, who owned the flat, got some keys and after showering and changing, I went a-wandering. I first went up to Sagrada Familia, then wandered through some parks, saw Barcelona's response to Lloyd's of London and then went to wait at the bus staion for Shiri. I didn't eactually know what bus she was on so waited for about 45 minutes, then walked home only to arrive to find an email from her saying she had just gotten to the bus station. We got some dinner, ate a picnic on the floor of our room and planned out the next few days.

Bull-ring

picnic dinner

So for Day 1 in Barcelona, we headed down first to Playa Catalunya to get some maps and then walked to La Rambla. La Rambla is the main street in Barcelona that leads all the way down to the harbour and it chock-full of touristy things. But there is also an incredible market that it just packed with  fresh produce, meats, cheeses, candy, seafood. The colors and smells were delectable. I picked up some kiwi and pineapple and we continued down the street. We also stopped into this little church right off La Rambla that had these gorgeously painted archways (but only on one side of the church, which was odd). It reminded me a lot of the Italian Church up on Orkney.

most awkward restaurant ever...

Playa Catalunya

statue in Playa Catalunya

church off La Rambla

the market!

Our journey down La Rambla left us at the Colombus Memorial, which was almost exactly like Trafalgar Square- huge columned statue to a naval figure surrounded at the bottoms with lions. There were also some figures of Colombus greeting natives... of course these were extremely biased. The memorial is surrounded by naval and harbour buildings, all flying the Catalan flag. We sat down by this floating bridge that takes you across to the marina and had lunch and our fruit and then wandered up the promenade to the Barri Gotica, or Old City.

Memorial to Colom (as they call him)

naval building

harbour offices

The Barri Gotica is just a confusing maze of narrow streets, cobblestones, alleyways, fabulous buildings and architecture and Roman walls. We had a pretty terrible map so ended up doing a lot of wandering and seeing places we couldn't necessarily identify but the weather was gorgeous and so the walking was just a great experience to see something new. It reminded me a lot of parts of Oxford and parts of Jerusalem. We saw the outside of a couple of museums with huge courtyards and also went into one of the oldest cathedrals in Barcelona, which had this courtyard that Shiri commented was like a mini-golf course. They had this fake little pond with a bridge and little animal figurines all over the place- very odd. One of the other things we did at the Barri Gotica was go to the Picasso Museum. Honestly, despite being in this really cool old building, it was a little disappointing. Most of the pieeces were from his childhood, which was very interesting. Many of them looked very realistic and very different from his late Cubist pieces. (Picasso was known to say "when I was a child, I was forced to paint like an adult so as an adult, I painted like a child.) Which seeing the early pieces was interesting, there was nothing from his Cubist years, which is what we really wanted to see.

part of the Roman Wall

courtyard of the Cathedral

it was like these weird mini-golf course with chickens

inside the old cathedral

Next we headed up to the Arc d'Triomfe, which is so different from the one in Paris and New York (and London, as a matter-of-fact). This became one of our favorite places in Barcelona- I just loved the reddish brick and the lighter accents. The park that the Arc was in led us down to a larger park that had the most glorious dragon fountain, ponds with people sailing boats, lots of paths and playgrounds and many museums. So perfect for such a gorgeous day.

Arc d'Triomfe

Dragon fountain

Parlament

We found our way back into the Barri Gotica and found Placa de George Orwell because I love his books and JUST picked up Homage to Catalonia while in Sun Valley. We also found this amazing shop where we ended up picking up presents for everyone we needed to pick up presents for. I can't guarantee we could ever find this place again so we decided to get the gifts at the beginning of the trip.

massive coat hanger looking statue

Since it was still open and also highly recommended by Rick Steves and Co., we headed to the Modern Art Museum. Guys, modern art is weird but there were some pretty cool exhibits, one about some hippie convention in Spain in the 70's. There was also a video about a woman getting very "close" to a pillar. Yep, imagine away. It was pretty dark by the time we left so we headed home but got to take some fun pictures of the lights up and down Playa Catalunya and La Rambla.

chalkboard mural at the Cont. Art Museum

Playa Catalunya at night-time