Citytrip
Got some days off, so I could escape for a few days. The days were set: 13th august until 16th august '07. After some calls I found a travel buddy and a destination: Barcelona.
It was confirmed, we really go to Barcelona. They day before departure I got a half day off, because there was nothing to do and I could prepare myself for the city trip.
In the late morning we arrived at Barcelona. Since we had to go to the toilet we almost forget our luggage. Fortunately I noticed that I was missing something and I said to Tom: we forgot something, we have to go back! Our luggage.
After a long walk and showed the tickets to the people we could enter and get our luggage back. Then we took a bus in the direction of the centre and went off somewhere at a big street. We decided to walk to the hotel, we thought it would be easy. They policeman did not speak English so we had to talk in Spanish.
The hotel was ok, clean and good. Not really big but it was not necessary since we were supposed to be in the city the whole day.
After changing we decided to turn right. The first building we saw was: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Unfortunately we did not enter so I can’t tell about it. I know there are different kind of arts to see. We walked upstairs to have a very nice view.
The very famous fountain is situated in front of this building. During the summer evenings there is a show which take about 30 minutes.
We walked further and saw there was a nice castle so decided to walk to there. It was a long walk and I became very tired, so we had to stop a few times. But it was totally worth it. You get a great view and it feels like freedom. This was the first acquaintance with Barcelona. Another long walk back we finally arrived in the centre.
Since Tom really wanted to visit the football stadium: Camp Nou, we decided to go there first because it was far away and we did not have so much time left.
By metro we went to the stop of Parc Güell. Because we didn’t walk enough we decided to go there. It was a long, long and high walk! Fortunately there were some escalator so it made it a bit easier for me. But again it’s really worth to visit it.
It’s build in 14 years (1900-1914) by GaudÃ. It used to be a residential but they just built and sold two houses. So it was just one big mistake. Now we can be happy because it’s great to visit it. Everything is made of mosaics. Now it’s a part of UNESCO. In the evening we went one of the famous places in Barcelona: La Rambla. Many peoples, restaurant, shops, flowers, living statues; It's all here at the street. We just walked around and tried to ‘save’ everything and found a place to eat. We went back to the hotel to get some sleep for another heavy day.
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Here some information about La Rambla.
Nowadays it’s a long street which you can separate in 5 pieces.
1. Rambla Canaletes. This is the youngest part. When you take a nap of the fountain: Font les Canaletes, you will turn back in Barcelona once.
I did not do it, but I came back one year later.. ;)
2. Rambla Estudis. This part is named to the 16th century institute Estudis Generals. A few of the main-sights of this part are: Eslgesia de Betlem and Palau Comillas.
3. Rambla St. Josep. You can find a lot of flower shops over here. Some of the main sights of the 3rd part are: Mercat de la Boquiria (market with a lot of vegetables), het Antiga Casa Figueres and Casa Bruno Quadros.
4.
5. Rambla Santa Mònica. This part is the last one and the end is the old harbor Port Vell. One of the high lights is Museo de Cera
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The next day we started at La Rambla and went to Plaça Reail.
Since Gaudà had left so many nice buildings we had to see them. We tried to visit Casa Milà but it was just too busy.
In the afternoon we visited the Sagrada Familia. After a short waiting we could enter but it’s nothing special. They are still trying to finish this building which will take so many years so it’s not worth it I guess.
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The last day had arrived.
After this Castle we went to the ‘Arc de Triomf’. We just stayed here for a short time. It was raining as well.
In the evening we had a flight back home.
