Our adventures in Barcelona started out with a bit of a delay thanks to our delayed flight that put us in the city later than expected. We couldn't check into our AirBnB until the next day (the host wasn't available after 8 p.m.) so we stayed in a hotel near the airport. It ended up being a beautiful hotel with a soaking tub with jets and a really comfortable bed. It was a nice ending to a stressful travel day.
So, we didn't make it to the actual city of Barcelona until after noon the next day. We checked into our AirBnB and set off to find lunch. A friend had recommended a place called Brunch & Cake which was a little over a mile away. We walked there only to find that the wait would be an hour. Since we had skipped breakfast, that didn't seem like the wisest idea. Thankfully the host told us about another location/sister cafe they had just 6 blocks away. They saved a table for us and we walked some more. It was the best food ever. Think hipster breakfast/brunch food with fresh, organic, healthy food (seriously, their pancakes were sugar free...) But it was all amazing. We ate there
three times. I thought the wait staff would start recognizing us! It was all so. good. I'm thinking about writing the owners to come to SF -- they would fit right in and do amazing here.
This is a chicken sandwich with a side of nachos (the thing sticking out of it is a syringe with hot sauce). It was delicious and we ate it all.
After lunch, we did a walking tour with our Rick Steves Audio Tour. He guided us passed the Cathedral of Barcelona (we just missed the last entry time to see the inside), the Gothic Quarter, the Ramblas (shopping strip) and a few other buildings that were of interest. We took a few wrong turns but enjoyed it for the most part. He gave a lot of history about the city which was hard to track. Barcelona has over 3,000 years of history! Keeping the leaders in order was difficult for me--I had regrets of not paying attention to more history in school several times on this trip.
After the tour, we walked over to the pier and watched the boats for a while. We also passed a statue of Christopher Columbus-- his journey had started in Barcelona . . . the things I never really paid attention to before.
We could already tell we loved this city - in just one day. As we walked around we noticed a number of playgrounds --like six in one mile-- that were really close to things that adults would want to do, like shop or eat. A lot of the play structures were right next to restaurants that had outdoor seating -- so a family could actually eat out with a high degree of success. A lot of areas were made for walking not driving. The metro was also amazing. The longest wait we ever had was 4 minutes. On our last night, we had to transfer three times and again, the wait between trains was almost nothing! Everything seemed so well planned and timed. I would say these things were also notable in Madrid. San Sebastian had a lot of playgrounds too but no metro (and no real need for it).
On the second day in Barcelona, we took the metro to the Sagrada Familia, a famous Basilica designed by Antoni Gaudi. He designed several buildings in the city all of them unique. This church however is still under construction . . . it started in 1883 but he died in 1926. Others have taken on the project and you can almost see the three different generations of construction. They have it scheduled to be finished in 10 more years. Since we didn't make it inside this building, we are hoping to go back someday after its finished.
**Clicking on the photographs will enlarge them**
The outside of the Sagrada is amazing. I have never seen anything like it. Statues and words cover nearly the whole front and rear of the building. The front side shows the nativity scene in such great imagery and the back shows the crucifixion in such detail it really hits your heart. So the gospel is just right there in the open for all to see. Its really amazing.
This is another building he designed. All the edges were smooth/rounded -- it really stands out against the buildings around it. He also used a lot of colors on the outside of the building (as well as the inside I assume).
We stopped by the Barcelona Cathedral one more time to see if we could get in but the line wrapped around the entire church! Then we took the metro to the Arc de Triumph and rested a bit before walking through a really beautiful park.
After that we started making our way toward the Olympic village. We weren't sure what to find here . . . but since the 1992 Summer Olympics were such a big deal for the USA I had selfishly assumed there would be something amazing to see (USA Basketball Dream Team and Gymnastics both took home the Gold and you remember Kerri Strugg!) But there wasn't really anything to see. The area had been built up and there was a beach which had been constructed for the events which is enjoyed by so many people now. We stayed at the beach watching beach volleyball being played and then made our way over to a restaurant for dinner.
We had made a reservation for a place called Agua which was you may have guessed, right on the water. The views were great and after a short rain we watched the sunset and turn the sky a stunning cotton-candy pink and blue. The food was really good although we weren't exactly sure what Paella was supposed to taste like! I liked it but the dish we had wasn't totally amazing. The tapas we ordered were delicious though!
It had been a long day and a lot of walking. We made it home just after 11 p.m. and hit 20,000 steps. The next day was our travel day. We ate breakfast at Brunch & Cake for the last time and took the metro to the train station. Madrid here we come!
Our adventures in Barcelona started out with a bit of a delay thanks to our delayed flight that put us in the city later than expected. We couldn't check into our AirBnB until the next day (the host wasn't available after 8 p.m.) so we stayed in a hotel near the airport. It ended up being a beautiful hotel with a soaking tub with jets and a really comfortable bed. It was a nice ending to a stressful travel day.
So, we didn't make it to the actual city of Barcelona until after noon the next day. We checked into our AirBnB and set off to find lunch. A friend had recommended a place called Brunch & Cake which was a little over a mile away. We walked there only to find that the wait would be an hour. Since we had skipped breakfast, that didn't seem like the wisest idea. Thankfully the host told us about another location/sister cafe they had just 6 blocks away. They saved a table for us and we walked some more. It was the best food ever. Think hipster breakfast/brunch food with fresh, organic, healthy food (seriously, their pancakes were sugar free...) But it was all amazing. We ate there
three times. I thought the wait staff would start recognizing us! It was all so. good. I'm thinking about writing the owners to come to SF -- they would fit right in and do amazing here.
This is a chicken sandwich with a side of nachos (the thing sticking out of it is a syringe with hot sauce). It was delicious and we ate it all.
After lunch, we did a walking tour with our Rick Steves Audio Tour. He guided us passed the Cathedral of Barcelona (we just missed the last entry time to see the inside), the Gothic Quarter, the Ramblas (shopping strip) and a few other buildings that were of interest. We took a few wrong turns but enjoyed it for the most part. He gave a lot of history about the city which was hard to track. Barcelona has over 3,000 years of history! Keeping the leaders in order was difficult for me--I had regrets of not paying attention to more history in school several times on this trip.
After the tour, we walked over to the pier and watched the boats for a while. We also passed a statue of Christopher Columbus-- his journey had started in Barcelona . . . the things I never really paid attention to before.
We could already tell we loved this city - in just one day. As we walked around we noticed a number of playgrounds --like six in one mile-- that were really close to things that adults would want to do, like shop or eat. A lot of the play structures were right next to restaurants that had outdoor seating -- so a family could actually eat out with a high degree of success. A lot of areas were made for walking not driving. The metro was also amazing. The longest wait we ever had was 4 minutes. On our last night, we had to transfer three times and again, the wait between trains was almost nothing! Everything seemed so well planned and timed. I would say these things were also notable in Madrid. San Sebastian had a lot of playgrounds too but no metro (and no real need for it).
On the second day in Barcelona, we took the metro to the Sagrada Familia, a famous Basilica designed by Antoni Gaudi. He designed several buildings in the city all of them unique. This church however is still under construction . . . it started in 1883 but he died in 1926. Others have taken on the project and you can almost see the three different generations of construction. They have it scheduled to be finished in 10 more years. Since we didn't make it inside this building, we are hoping to go back someday after its finished.
**Clicking on the photographs will enlarge them**
The outside of the Sagrada is amazing. I have never seen anything like it. Statues and words cover nearly the whole front and rear of the building. The front side shows the nativity scene in such great imagery and the back shows the crucifixion in such detail it really hits your heart. So the gospel is just right there in the open for all to see. Its really amazing.
This is another building he designed. All the edges were smooth/rounded -- it really stands out against the buildings around it. He also used a lot of colors on the outside of the building (as well as the inside I assume).
We stopped by the Barcelona Cathedral one more time to see if we could get in but the line wrapped around the entire church! Then we took the metro to the Arc de Triumph and rested a bit before walking through a really beautiful park.
After that we started making our way toward the Olympic village. We weren't sure what to find here . . . but since the 1992 Summer Olympics were such a big deal for the USA I had selfishly assumed there would be something amazing to see (USA Basketball Dream Team and Gymnastics both took home the Gold and you remember Kerri Strugg!) But there wasn't really anything to see. The area had been built up and there was a beach which had been constructed for the events which is enjoyed by so many people now. We stayed at the beach watching beach volleyball being played and then made our way over to a restaurant for dinner.
We had made a reservation for a place called Agua which was you may have guessed, right on the water. The views were great and after a short rain we watched the sunset and turn the sky a stunning cotton-candy pink and blue. The food was really good although we weren't exactly sure what Paella was supposed to taste like! I liked it but the dish we had wasn't totally amazing. The tapas we ordered were delicious though!
It had been a long day and a lot of walking. We made it home just after 11 p.m. and hit 20,000 steps. The next day was our travel day. We ate breakfast at Brunch & Cake for the last time and took the metro to the train station. Madrid here we come!
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