Last Day in Barcelona

After not being able to get on a tour we wanted to, we

decided to do some more walking.

We found this market place that was incredible. I don't

know why it is not advertised. It is a huge version of

Findley market in Cincinnati. But as you can see the

individual stands are well displayed and very clean.

Fish

More Fish

Fish again… Where's the beef?

There was a lot of beef, but the fish was intriguing 

because there was fish I had never heard of and 

sections of fish for sale I didn't know you could eat.

In fact, dad had fish in a Paella last night and didn't

know what he was eating. They were whitish rings.

We found them in this market and learned it was 

Calamari Annula. (sp?)  We joked that 

it was the annus of a squid!!

Closer visit to the Arc de Tromp

More bike stations:

I wish I had a pedometer on because I would love to

know how far we walked today, but it was great

seeing more sites and sites we've seen before.

Tonight we are going to a concert at the famous

Paulu de la Musica Catalana

The Barcelona Guitar Trio are performing.

It should be awesome.

I'm excited to see this concert hall. We were going

to take a tour, but decided to just see it when we

go to the concert.

Tomorrow we leave Barcelona.

It has been an awesome two weeks but I am ready to

be home where I don't have to breathe in cigarette smoke

(I'm sure I am bringing home lung cancer)

and pay 1 euro to pee.

Adios!

and Thanks for reading my blog!

Barcelona Day 3

After our bike tour yesterday, we realized that there was

a lot we didn't get to see. So we went on a walk-about.

Down the alleys of the Rambla we went.

We read about this "hole-in-the-wall" store down one

of the alleys that we wanted to find. It was the best

store ever. It has all kinds of dried fruit, nuts and

spices you can think of. Plus a lot more. We bought

dried strawberries, apricots, prunes and dates.

If I had room in my suitcase I would have bought

a lot more.

We continued to walk and walk and walk

and came out on the lower end of the Rambla

close to the Mediterranean. One part of the

plaza has all of these actors in various costumes.

I thought they were statues, but if you but money

in the can she would move. It was really cool.

We continued walking to sea and there was a

boardwalk that took you out to the end of the pier 

where there was a mall.

Looking across the harbor there was this tower.

A cable car would start at the mall and go over

to this tower. It would either stop and the people would

then go down an elevator in the middle of the tower or

they would continue on...

to the top of this hill. You can barely see the cables.

We wondered what was over there that people would

pay 50 euros to ride the cable car to. So we decided

to find out, but we WALKED over.

After a very long hot walk we found these stairs. They

were beautiful with bright blue tile.

So we climbed...

At the top was this beautiful building with lots of water

fountains. The stairs we climbed ended up by the building.

This is just a front view. It is the Palau Nacional MNAC or

their museum of art.

From the museum you can see out over the entire city

of Barcelona.

Almost in the middle, just at the base of the mountain

you can see the Sagrada Familia or the Gaudí church 

that we saw yesterday.

Behind the museum we kept walking and found the

Olympic stadium were the 1996 Olympics was held.

The Torch

Olympic Stadium

The Natatorium

And a park

It was really cool to see this area.

Walking down from the museum there was this fountain.

Every couple of minutes the water changed and sprayed

a different pattern. We sat and watched it for quite

awhile. (I really needed to rest!!)

On our walk back to the hotel we saw many other sites,

like one of their arenas, etc.

One last thing. All around the city you see these lots

with these orange bikes. We watched people get of 

the bus, go over to a machine by the bikes, put their

smart phone up to the screen on the machine. The

machine gives them a number and the person goes

and finds the bike with that number. The machine unlocks

the bike and the person rides away.

What a cool idea in a city where bikes are the best way

to get around. When the person is done they can return

the bike to any bike station around the city.

Well I think we walked at least 15 miles today. It was

hot but there was a nice breeze.

Thank heavens the hotel is air-conditioned.

Barcelona Day 2

We had so much fun in Germany taking the "Fat Tire" tour

that we decided to do the same in Barcelona.

We had to walk down these cool alleyways to get

to the plaza to meet the tour.

We met up with our guide, Jordan for the tour.

He is from Australia but really knew the history

of this area.

One of our stops was at the music hall.

If you click on these photos to enlarge them you can 

see just above the street light and to the left and right

there are busts of three composers:

Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.

We are going to go on a tour of this building tomorrow so

will find out more about it.

This is the water fountain in the main park. The archway

in the back is fashioned after the Bradenburg Gate in Germany.

One of the main sites that bring a lot of tourists is to the

Church Gaudí began building.  He was an architect and

wanted to build a church, but ran into a lot of problems.  He

died before it was completed so Barcelona is trying really hard to

get it completed before the 100th year of his death, 2026.

If you have every wondered where our word, gaudy came from

you just have to look closely at this church. Gaudí's work is

really "gaudy." So much detail.

But the four sides of the church depict a different 

representation of Christ from his birth to his death.

Another monument area, in the background you can see

a replica of the Arch of Triumph but the Eifle tower was

suppose to be there.

As we rode through the city, the only thing that separated us

(the bikers) from the cars and buses were these black rubber 

blocks. 

We rode down to the Mediterranean Sea. The beach

was really hopping. Barcelona didn't have a beach

originally, but when the Olympics was here they wanted

to give the tourist something to do so they brought in by boat

sand from Africa and made this beach. 

We couldn't take a lot of pictures of people on the beach

because topless sunbathing is the norm. Most of the 

women going topless had no business being without

a top. There was one women right behind me that was

obese, topless and wearing a thong. Of course due to her

size you couldn't see the thong so she looked completely

nude. I could tell dad was having a hard time not looking.

Just another plaza

This is another Gaudí building. There are

several of his architectural structures around.

The very old mixed with the very new.

The tour was really fun and we learned a lot about

the history of Barcelona, but the following story was

very touching.

In the 1200's the Romans had control of this area. They

hated Christians so the soldiers went around asking people

if they were Christian. If they said yes they were killed.

So obviously no one would own up to being a Christian.

Well one day the soldiers approach a young girl, 13 years old

and asked if she was a Christian. She stood tall and said, "Yes I am."

The soldiers took her and tortured her then threw her in prison.

The next day they asked her if she was Christian. Again she said

yes. They tortured her even more brutally. The third day the process

continued but this time when she said yes they took their swords and

slashed her body in an X fashion, killing her.

The Christians were so taken with her courage that years later

they got together and went against the Romans and took control

of the city. Then they went around asking if a person was a

Roman. If they answered yes, they were killed.

The girls name was Eulalia and this church was erected in

her honor.

The inside of the church is beautiful. Look at the

ceiling, you can see the yellow and white form an

X. Around the church and the city you will see things

represented by this X symbolizing the way Eulalia was

killed.

Looking at the front of the "chapel"

Downstairs, Eulalia is buried in the vault that is just

above the white table. This room is her memorial room.

A better view of the X on the ceiling 

These two pictures show some of the structures

around the city with the "X."

This last picture cracked me up and I had to share it.

I couldn't figure out what this little store was.

It's a candy store. You buy these "pill" bottles and fill

them up with whatever kind of candy you want.

I love it!

Well, we will see what tomorrow brings.