Tuesday, May 14, 2013

¡Barcelona!

-Pronounced BarTHelona by just about any southern Spaniard ;)

      Yep, I´ve finally made it to the north of Spain! And wow. It is SO different from southern Spain. Barcelona is a beautiful coastal city filled with TONS of interesting attractions that kept me and my traveling buddy Gloria busy all weekend. We walked our feet off! Although it had been a huge week of traveling (Monday in Chicago, Tuesday in Madrid, Wednesday in Granada and then Friday in Barcelona) I still really enjoyed the opportunity to visit Barcelona. Here´s a few of the highlights of my weekend in Barcelona...
Thought my airplane view of the Eastern coast of Spain and
 the Mediterranean sea was too good to pass up! 
Barcelona here I come! 


Soon after checking into our hostel we hit the ground running and started exploring the city right away. Here we are in front of the famous "Boqueria" market with everything from jamon legs to gummy worms. Definitely a hoppin' place! 

After meandering down the calle Rambla and enjoying lots of hilarious 
street entertainers we finally found the coast. It was beautiful! 

This was as close as I got to swimming in the Mediterranean, BRRRRRR! 

Our awesome supper in the hostal, definitely a
Dinner of Champions.


Up brigtht and early Saturday morning to tour the Sagrada Familia!
Took lots of hoop jumping, aka walking from one ticket officer to the other only to get sent back to the first one,  ( Ahhh, I was ready to bust up a chifferobe to quote my hermanito!)  ) , but we finally got to enter, it was SO worth it! 
Statues in the front of the church´s entrance. 


Gaudí was nuts!


Parque Güell 
Awesome picnic spot, looking over the city! 

Candyland exists! We found it, inside Parque Güel!! ;)

Awesome park we stumbled upon later Satuday afternoon.
Sometimes it pays to wander around without a plan! 


Finished off our amazing day of exploring Barcelona by 
watching the Magic Fountain light show.
So cool! 
And then we got caught in a down pour...
What a memorable, sopping wet night! 


La catedral

Sunday we spent the day touring the older, gothlic part of Barcelona where we saw the cathedral and learned many fasinating things about the city in our free tour. Visited the coast one more time, took a peak at some of Gaudí´s casas, and did some last minute exploring before catching our flight back to Granada. What a fantastic weekend! :)



P.S. Stay tuned for my Portugal adventures this past weekend!

3 comments:

  1. So, so fun. That 'extra' park is so cool!

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  2. Very nice -- love the Boqueria. As Rick Steves puts it, where Barcelonans have purchased their animal parts for hundreds of years!

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  3. What fun! So good to hear from you again. That 'extra' park looks amazing! Can't wait to hear about Portugal!

    Take care!
    Rick, Michelle & Brooklyn

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