Barcelona (6th - 8th October)

Just inside entrance into Antoni Gaudi's Guell Park

After passing through the French-Spanish Border, we stayed on a main road (not a toll road) to cut through another cape section of country to pop back out on the coast once again. We found our camp 40mins before Barcelona, where we thought we would stay at least our first night and then work out how best to get in and see Spain's second largest city. Three nights later, this had proved to be the best option, which worked really well for us.

The "block of discord" - the diverse styles of
architecture - Gaudi's the 3rd one from left

We normally try and avoid big city's but we were encouraged here by Shannon's accounts and encouragement from her visit 2 years ago and my brother G. We were not disappointed. This city has wooed more tourist dollars out of us than anywhere else on our travels so far, in fact may need to start calling in favours as this place is captivating.
Although we were in a seaside camp, the actual beach wasn't that desirable, but they did run frequent mini buses to a lovely beach just up the road. The camp also ran a free twice daily return bus to the city centre which made it all very easy, tho this first

Another Gaudi creation
I'd love one of these apartments

trip we booked on our arrival at 4ish and were only able to get standing there and back. It was a full sized bus, and they certainly crammed us in.
The camp staff were very helpful in planning our days in the city. We had on our list to do Gaudi's Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia. As it turns out, you can't just rock up to these attractions, buy a ticket and enter! You have to buy a time slot to go in! And in our case, they were all booked out the day after our arrival, so the camp booked us for the next day.

One of the many boulevards

So now, on our first day in the City, what should we do! Well, we bought a day pass on the double decker Tourist bus that did narrated tours covering the city in 3 separate sections. We thought if we did that first, then we would know what to follow up with. Well, we only managed two of the tours broken up by lunch at a lovely little back street where the food and beer was very cheap. Then finished our day off with a lovely walk down a Plane tree lined

Didn't see the "no photo"
sign till after Bill took photo!

boulevard to the revamped Port area. Although we are in the shoulder season, it was still pretty busy. Barcelona stays busy with tourists all year round.
The bus was perfect for looking out over the stunning busy city and urban areas that had been revitalised for the Olympic games back in 1992, and earlier. The City was going through a massive growth period back in the early 1900's, and they had the foresight to plan the city well. There are many parks and gardens throughout the city, many having car parks under them. Lovely wide

Revamped Port Area

tree lined avenues. A very cycle friendly city, although we didn't experience this ourselves. The octagonal blocks of the revitalised part of the city linking all the separate towns (now suburbs), have chamfered corners to improve vision on the streets and opening the intersections up for sunlight. This gave such a spacious feel to this densely populated city. Hope Christchurch is aware of such a feature with their current rebuilding of
                                                       the city!

All the light is natural

The next day we headed back into the city, extending our day by an extra 2 hours to catch the last return camp bus, to give us more time. Just as well as the day went surprisingly fast. Thankfully the day before, we realised we should have bought the 2 day pass for the bus tours, and had exchanged our one day tickets for the discounted price, as we needed these bus routes to get to our two destinations today - Gaudi's Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia.

Even having purchased our tickets for these attractions 2 days earlier, we still had to queue in our time slots. You can see with the huge numbers visiting these attractions, it does need to be controlled and they do it well. Would hate to be there in July & August though for the peak season.

Sagrada Familia
Showing only 3 of the 4 cranes

Visiting the Sagrada Familia, I really had little expectation, Bill was far more aware of what we were about to visit. I cringe to say I thought Barcelona was more about Antoni Gaudi's park than his church! WOW! I was really blown away with the visual impact and incredible vision Gaudi himself had at that time. And to think it will be sometime before it will be completed too. I would think certainly not our life time. On our travels so far Bill goes into soooooooooooo many churches, I was starting to be over them, but this one is something else. Worthy of the thousand pictures Bill took. We had an audio guide as we walked around the church, which was invaluable. It was really incredible that it is such a construction site with so many tourists! I would hate to be their Health & Safety Officer. Four huge cranes operating above everyone! Freaky!

Look at the detail put into this scene

After a late lunch back at the same little cafe as the day before (yep! we are considered locals now) we went onto Park Guell. This was originally planned to be a residential garden city estate, the dream of wealthy architect Eusebi Guell, but didn't get the response he was hoping from his clients. Guell & Gaudi both lived here while Gaudi worked on the creation of their two houses, plus the porters houses at the entrance and a massive square as a centre piece.  Once Gaudi's patron Eusebi Guell passed on, the City of Barcelona benefited by purchasing the property and opening it up as a park.  Gaudi's work is amazing, the park was another visual delight.

Looking down onto the two Porter's cottages

We jumped back on the tour bus and got off at Placa d'Espanya, a huge square with many historic monuments, museums and fountains. Built on a hillside back in the early 1900's overlooking the city and out to sea. A huge dark cloud was approaching and we just had time for another 100 photo's, before jumping on another bus and it started to rain. As I said earlier, these are double decker buses, and this particular one had no roof. As we started the return back to the central square (nearly an hours ride in peak traffic) we had our own

The 86 pillars supporting
the square above

waterfall as the water cascaded down the stairs to the bottom deck and out the doors. The temperature dropped with this cloud burst & as nightfall approached, it was fortunate we only had an hour to wait till we caught our bus back to camp. No wine to watch the sunsetting tonight.

Bill standing where Shannon stood 2 years earlier!
The majestic Palau Nacional

Barcelona was a wonderful experience for both of us, which we really enjoyed. The varied & striking architecture that fills this city, the beautiful gardens and fountains and monuments. One city we would highly recommend to you to visit if you get the opportunity to, if you haven't already.

A chap I met on the street