SIX DAYS IN BARCELONA

Well, here we are December 23, 2011 over a month since we first arrived in Barcelona and I am just now getting around to updating our Travel Blog.  My my, how time flies!

We had a great visit in Barcelona.  I wrote about our first day there on my last blog and for the remainder of our time there we mainly walked around, took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, went for a little train excursion to a seaside resort, ate well, attended a classical music concert and basically enjoyed the sights, the food and sounds of this magnificent Spanish city.  Following are some of the highlights of our stay there.

On our second day in Barcelona, because of jet lag from our travel overseas, we got up and got started very late, had breakfast and decided to take it easy and just walk around to see some of the sites and return for a very late lunch/early super at the Wok Dao Japanese Buffet restaurant which as I mentioned in my last blog was highly recommended by Tony our B&B host and was closed the previous day (they close between 4:30 and 9:00 pm - this is Europe) when we tried to eat there .

Wok Dao Japanese Restaurant

The buffet

We weren't disappointed!  In addition to the standard oriental buffet with a great selection of all things oriental, in the back they had a good variety of seafood and meats that you could pick and choose from, bring it  to a Japanese teppan grill and watch the chef prepare your meal right in front of you.  The food was all you can eat, freshly prepared and succulent, an exceptional value for the money.  

After our meal, we continued strolling in the San Antoni District for a while, checked out a nunber of interesting boutiques along the way and headed for our home away from home for an early retirement, trying to recoup from the jet lag.

Day three we decided to take the hop-on hop-off bus tour which has three routes, the Blue, the Red and the Green route.  While we had already done this tour the first time we came to Barcelona with our friends Art and Ethel a few years ago, we wanted to do it again to refresh our memories. 

Although we were still in late November, many of the  streets were already decorated with Christmas lights and decorations.  However, we were told that they only turn on the city lights on December first so Rosella was very dissapointed that we would not be in town to view this spectacle.  However the lights were already on at night at El Corte Ingles, the great Spanish department store just down the street where we were staying.

Christmas lights on busy street

More lights
along side
streets



Lights on at El Corte Ingles Dept Store


It was a beautiful sunny day and started out doing the Blue route until early afternoon when we got off the bus and had a tappas (small portions of food somewhat like  appetisers or hors-d'oeuvres) lunch at another restaurant recommended by Tony, our host. 

It was a mild afternoon and we sat at an outside pattio table along the street.  We were invited inside to choose our lunch from a nice selection of tappas they had prepared fresh that morning.  We made about a half dozen choices from their selection and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Tappas on the
outside pattio

After lunch, we went back to our tour and did the Red route which took us to a different district in the city.  We decided to skip the Green route which is very short, duplicates some of the sites in the Red route and takes us through the more modern part of Barcelona which to us, was not as interesting as the older areas in the city.

Every day while we were in Barcelona, we strolled at least once and sometimes up to three times on La Rambla, the closed off pedestrian street with all the street vendors, buxters and markets which is always crowded with folks from the city and visitors as well, and this, our third day here, was no exception.

Market on
La Rambla

Strolling along
La Ramble

Flower vendor on La Rambla

Ice cream time
in Sitge

Taking in the sun in Sitges

On our fourth day we had intended to rent a car and do an out of town excursion but Tony convinced us that a one hour train ride to the coastal town of Sitges would be a great alternative.  Since we had never traveled by train in Europe, we decided to take the train to this little beach town and we weren't dissapointed.  The train was quite a novelty for us. At first we traveled through the industrial part of Barcelona straight into bountyful vegetable farms and beautiful coastal country side.  We spent the remainder of this beautiful sunny 22 degree C day exploring the quaint little village of Sitges and its eight beaches and which, like Shediac at this time of the year, was very tranquille.  The late afternoon ride back to Barcelona was just as enjoyable as the the one in the morning.

Day 5 was a whirl-wind day of visiting some of Barcelona's hot spots.  After early breakfast we headed for the Basilica Sagrada Familia, (The Holy Family Basilica) Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece which is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church, a most important Barcelona landmark, has been continuous since 1882 and is expected to continue until the mid 2040's, that is over 160 years from start to completion

Unique pedestal
columns inside

Outside the
Basilica

The main alter

After having explored the outside and inside of this extraordinary church for almost two hours, we went to the museum downstairs where they have hundreds of displays and scale models developed prior to the actual construction of the various segments of the structure and explaining the hundreds of techniques developed specially for the erection of this intricate building.

Picture of workers
finishing stonework

Workshop where all the pieces
of the Basilica are produced in
 miniature to scale prior to actual
 construction 

1" to 25" scale model of the Basilica's Nave

After our visit to La Sagrada Familia, we made our way to Parc Guell, another Antoni Gaudi project.  However due to the economic conditions in the 1930's, the project was never completed but the amasing infra-structure still remains and is maintained as a municipal park by the City of Barcelona. 

Main entrance to Parc Guell

Walkways in the Park

Rosella sitting on a Gaudi designed, Guell Park bench

Planed market area in Park

We spent the remainder of the afternoon in Park Guell before heading for the Palau de la Musica (The Music Palace).  Built between 1905 and 1908 this majestic Concert Hall is known as one of the most unique Halls in the world and has been the privileged stage for the national and international concert life of the city of Barcelona for over one hundred years.

When we got there, the tours were closed for the day.  However, there was a Vivaldi concert scheduled for the evening so we bought two tickets for the 7:00 pm concert and hurried on to to an early supper at another tappas bar-restaurant about 15 minutes walk from the Palau that had also been recommended to us by Tony, another excellent choice.

The concert was excellent, the concert hall exceptional!!!

Inside the Palau de la Musica

Front of the
Palau de la Musica

Stained glass skylight in the middle of the Palau

After the concert, we made our way to La Rambla for one last stroll on our way home because on day 6, we were headed for the Port of Barcelona to embark on our 13 day trans-Atlantic cruise on Celebrity Solstice.

Stay tuned!