Now to another rather big blog update. This is our second trip in what has been a very busy month for us, and at this point it doesn't look like slowing down until around July.
On the very wet and early morning of Sunday the 25th of May we left Gatwick Airport for our flight to Barcelona. The flight was with Easyjet - a budget airline, where we bought return flights online for £100 each. If its one thing we've learnt over here is that you get what you pay for. We soon realised that maybe getting cheap flights wasn't really worth getting up at 4.30am for a 7am flight.
We arrived in Aeroport de Barcelona around 9ish and caught an "express train" into the centre of the city - which took around half an hour. From the centre we jumped onto the Metro (aka Underground) and caught the green line to a stop near our hotel, Hotel Concordia on the street, Avinguda del Paralel. After a quick unpack and sniff around the hotel, we hit the streets, even though the weather was quite average - wet, but not too cold. Barcelona on this Sunday was quite different to last time we had visited the city (both on separate trips). It was particularly quiet on the tourist side of things too, and with the combination of cloudy skies and rain, it perhaps took away some of the great memories we have of the city. After walking randomly around the Old Town part of the city, we decided that it was time for lunch and chose a random restaurant in the hope of finding some tasty paella. Our mission was a success, as we enjoyed a seafood paella for two. Our waiter spoke next to nothing of English (normally its a pretty safe bet that they will speak at least "some" English), so it made for a lot of amusing hand gesturing and pointing, but we got there in the end.
After lunch we decided to embrace the Lonely Planet and try one of the walking tours. The weather was not being too kind to us at this point, in fact it was raining quite heavily, but we were determined to get out and see things. We started near where we had lunch, and walked around the old town, seeing many of the famous sights. It is truly fascinating walking around the narrow streets of old town Barcelona - it's one of the world's great cities. Matt stopped off to grab a refreshing gelati, while Anna was constantly disappearing into random shops, much to Matt's frustration. That evening we stopped off at a tapas bar for some drinks and nachos, which resulted in Matt getting us lost on our way back to the hotel. Instead of taking 15 minutes to get back, it took nearly an hour - but to his credit, we did get there eventually…
The next day started with a bit of a sleep in. The weather was looking much better than the previous day and we decided to see parts of Barcelona that neither of us had seen before in previous visits. The best way to accomplish this was to get onboard one of the Barcelona Hop-on Hop-off tourist buses. These buses which can be found in many cities around the world are definitely worthwhile if you are short of time. Our first stop off the bus was overlooking the city at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. We didn't actually go inside, but were amazed by the stunning panoramic views of the city. From there, the bus took us through the harbour and back into the city, where we stopped off to see some of Antonio Gaudi's architectural masterpieces on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, such as the famous Casa Batlló and Casa Milà - two of the most unique buildings in the world. This was also the main shopping street with all the top fashion brands scattered along the street. Next we thought it would be nice to take some piccies for Gaudi's most famous (unfinished) building, the Sagrada Familia. Matt had a urge for an icecream, so we sat at McDonald's with the church right behind us.
Sagrada Familia or the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 by public subscription. A year later Gaudí became director of the project, a post he would hold for more than 40 years until his death in 1926. Work continued on the church based on Gaudí's general plan and studies. Unlike many churches, it survived during the Spanish Civil War, when many churches were burned; it was and is seen as a kind of symbol for the city of Barcelona. It is still unfinished today and it is anybody's guess when it will be completed. It is a combination of Modernista elements and a unique version of the Gothic style.
The final stop for the day was our highlight for the day, Gaudi's Park Güell. Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914. The park was amazing and well worth the visit - click the previous link to read more about this amazing place. We posed with the multi-coloured mosaic dragon fountain at the main entrance and walked to the top of the park to witness the best views over the city we'd ever seen. Gaudi's unique architecture and style is certainly visible here – truly an amazing place to visit.
That evening, we had dinner in a restaurant in a lovely open square just off from La Ramblas. We started chatting with a Finnish guy who was over for business, as he sat next to us at dinner. (The tables were extremely close together). After dinner we drank some more, sampling some of the €1 Spanish sangria (which is like a punch really). The night was still young when we left our new friend, as we headed off to meet fellow Adelaidian's.
It was past midnight before we found where Paul, Mel and Mira were staying in a nice apartment not too far from our hotel. It was a little exciting to see them all after several months of being away from home and not seeing them. We left the apartment after several more drinks and some great catch up sessions.
Day 3 started with breakfast at a small café down the street from where our hotel was. A rather random thing happened there too, as there was this old man in there who kept staring at Matt. He then walked over to him, yelling some abuse in Spanish (which we obviously didn't understand). Fortunately, a waitress intercepted him at the last moment and kicked him out. Random....
After breakfast, we met up with Paul, Mel and Mira at their hotel and walked down Carrer Gran de Gràcia - once again looking in several designer shops. We stopped off for some lunch, and also had several jugs of sangria to wash down our meals. It wasn't too bad, but a cheap 2-course meal, but it did the job.
From there we walked to see Gaudi's La Pedrera, and this time waited in line to go inside and up to see the roof too. We had an audio tour headset included in the entrance fee and walked up several flights of stairs through the apartment which was set up as it would have been in the early 1900s. The roof was our last stop, which is truly amazing and also very unusual too. The roof-top contains several strange, yet intriguing, sculptures which are very popular with the tourists.
On the way back to La Ramblas, Mira decided that it would be a good idea to visit the Louis Vutton store and bought a saucy little red hand bag. This soon rubbed off a bit to Anna, and she decided that she should buy a nice looking trench coat in Zara. That evening we went back to the same restaurant as the night before (the food was good, and the menu was huge), as we were hungry for some paella.The paella was awesome, and so was the sangria! After dinner we headed back to their apartment for some more drinks, as a lot of the pubs were closing a bit too early for our liking, plus Mira was run down with the flu.
On the final day, we checked out from our hotel and walked down to the other's apartment to drop off our luggage. From there we caught a taxi to La Ramblas in search of the food market, but we never found it. Time was short, so we decided to move on and walk down to the harbour to take a look.
We all walked around Port Vell and ordered a round of mojitos, but Matt ordered a beer instead. He assumed that a "grande cerveza" would be a pint, but was shocked to see that a 1 litre beer came out, especially as he had only about 40 minutes to drink it! He got through it, and we caught another taxi back to the apartment to collect our luggage and headed out to the airport. Flying with a budget airline often brings delays... well it did this time, as our flight was delayed by around an hour. When we arrived back in Gatwick Airport, we caught the Gatwick Express train back to Victoria Station, then onto a tube to get home and unpack, ready for work the following morning.
Adios amigos.
We arrived in Aeroport de Barcelona around 9ish and caught an "express train" into the centre of the city - which took around half an hour. From the centre we jumped onto the Metro (aka Underground) and caught the green line to a stop near our hotel, Hotel Concordia on the street, Avinguda del Paralel. After a quick unpack and sniff around the hotel, we hit the streets, even though the weather was quite average - wet, but not too cold. Barcelona on this Sunday was quite different to last time we had visited the city (both on separate trips). It was particularly quiet on the tourist side of things too, and with the combination of cloudy skies and rain, it perhaps took away some of the great memories we have of the city. After walking randomly around the Old Town part of the city, we decided that it was time for lunch and chose a random restaurant in the hope of finding some tasty paella. Our mission was a success, as we enjoyed a seafood paella for two. Our waiter spoke next to nothing of English (normally its a pretty safe bet that they will speak at least "some" English), so it made for a lot of amusing hand gesturing and pointing, but we got there in the end.
After lunch we decided to embrace the Lonely Planet and try one of the walking tours. The weather was not being too kind to us at this point, in fact it was raining quite heavily, but we were determined to get out and see things. We started near where we had lunch, and walked around the old town, seeing many of the famous sights. It is truly fascinating walking around the narrow streets of old town Barcelona - it's one of the world's great cities. Matt stopped off to grab a refreshing gelati, while Anna was constantly disappearing into random shops, much to Matt's frustration. That evening we stopped off at a tapas bar for some drinks and nachos, which resulted in Matt getting us lost on our way back to the hotel. Instead of taking 15 minutes to get back, it took nearly an hour - but to his credit, we did get there eventually…
The next day started with a bit of a sleep in. The weather was looking much better than the previous day and we decided to see parts of Barcelona that neither of us had seen before in previous visits. The best way to accomplish this was to get onboard one of the Barcelona Hop-on Hop-off tourist buses. These buses which can be found in many cities around the world are definitely worthwhile if you are short of time. Our first stop off the bus was overlooking the city at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. We didn't actually go inside, but were amazed by the stunning panoramic views of the city. From there, the bus took us through the harbour and back into the city, where we stopped off to see some of Antonio Gaudi's architectural masterpieces on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, such as the famous Casa Batlló and Casa Milà - two of the most unique buildings in the world. This was also the main shopping street with all the top fashion brands scattered along the street. Next we thought it would be nice to take some piccies for Gaudi's most famous (unfinished) building, the Sagrada Familia. Matt had a urge for an icecream, so we sat at McDonald's with the church right behind us.
Sagrada Familia or the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 by public subscription. A year later Gaudí became director of the project, a post he would hold for more than 40 years until his death in 1926. Work continued on the church based on Gaudí's general plan and studies. Unlike many churches, it survived during the Spanish Civil War, when many churches were burned; it was and is seen as a kind of symbol for the city of Barcelona. It is still unfinished today and it is anybody's guess when it will be completed. It is a combination of Modernista elements and a unique version of the Gothic style.
The final stop for the day was our highlight for the day, Gaudi's Park Güell. Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914. The park was amazing and well worth the visit - click the previous link to read more about this amazing place. We posed with the multi-coloured mosaic dragon fountain at the main entrance and walked to the top of the park to witness the best views over the city we'd ever seen. Gaudi's unique architecture and style is certainly visible here – truly an amazing place to visit.
That evening, we had dinner in a restaurant in a lovely open square just off from La Ramblas. We started chatting with a Finnish guy who was over for business, as he sat next to us at dinner. (The tables were extremely close together). After dinner we drank some more, sampling some of the €1 Spanish sangria (which is like a punch really). The night was still young when we left our new friend, as we headed off to meet fellow Adelaidian's.
It was past midnight before we found where Paul, Mel and Mira were staying in a nice apartment not too far from our hotel. It was a little exciting to see them all after several months of being away from home and not seeing them. We left the apartment after several more drinks and some great catch up sessions.
Day 3 started with breakfast at a small café down the street from where our hotel was. A rather random thing happened there too, as there was this old man in there who kept staring at Matt. He then walked over to him, yelling some abuse in Spanish (which we obviously didn't understand). Fortunately, a waitress intercepted him at the last moment and kicked him out. Random....
After breakfast, we met up with Paul, Mel and Mira at their hotel and walked down Carrer Gran de Gràcia - once again looking in several designer shops. We stopped off for some lunch, and also had several jugs of sangria to wash down our meals. It wasn't too bad, but a cheap 2-course meal, but it did the job.
From there we walked to see Gaudi's La Pedrera, and this time waited in line to go inside and up to see the roof too. We had an audio tour headset included in the entrance fee and walked up several flights of stairs through the apartment which was set up as it would have been in the early 1900s. The roof was our last stop, which is truly amazing and also very unusual too. The roof-top contains several strange, yet intriguing, sculptures which are very popular with the tourists.
On the way back to La Ramblas, Mira decided that it would be a good idea to visit the Louis Vutton store and bought a saucy little red hand bag. This soon rubbed off a bit to Anna, and she decided that she should buy a nice looking trench coat in Zara. That evening we went back to the same restaurant as the night before (the food was good, and the menu was huge), as we were hungry for some paella.The paella was awesome, and so was the sangria! After dinner we headed back to their apartment for some more drinks, as a lot of the pubs were closing a bit too early for our liking, plus Mira was run down with the flu.
On the final day, we checked out from our hotel and walked down to the other's apartment to drop off our luggage. From there we caught a taxi to La Ramblas in search of the food market, but we never found it. Time was short, so we decided to move on and walk down to the harbour to take a look.
We all walked around Port Vell and ordered a round of mojitos, but Matt ordered a beer instead. He assumed that a "grande cerveza" would be a pint, but was shocked to see that a 1 litre beer came out, especially as he had only about 40 minutes to drink it! He got through it, and we caught another taxi back to the apartment to collect our luggage and headed out to the airport. Flying with a budget airline often brings delays... well it did this time, as our flight was delayed by around an hour. When we arrived back in Gatwick Airport, we caught the Gatwick Express train back to Victoria Station, then onto a tube to get home and unpack, ready for work the following morning.
Adios amigos.
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