For me, Barcelona was a tale of two cities, or perhaps more accurately, two tales of one city. The first day and a half that I spent in the city, I was mildly disappointed because I think that I was expecting so much. My final day, however, probably was my favorite day of my entire European trip. Because of this, the overall score is kind of confusing.
I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday, early enough in the day that I could go out and at least see something. The weather was grey and windy, but at least it wasn’t raining, so I ventured out. The hotel was easy enough to fine and was close to the subway. The biggest landmark that I’m aware of in Barcelona is the Sagrada Família, so that’s where I went.
Sagrada Família is a cathedral that was started by Gaudi. In fact, it was his pretty much the only project of Gaudi’s over the last several years of his life. When he died in 1926, it was only partially complete and others continued to work on the structure after Gaudi’s death. Apparently, people are still working on it because there were cranes all around, scaffolding and other viewing obstructions surrounding the cathedral. (Actually, I read that it is supposed to be completed sometime around 2030.) I tried to take some pictures, but the bright grey sky behind it kept any of the pictures from coming out very well. (I’m including pictures in this post from my final day, which was a much more beautiful day.) I have to admit that I was pretty underwhelmed by the whole Sagrada Família experience, especially the first day. It’s touted as the eighth-wonder-of-the-world-in-the-making but it’s really just a large church with way too much going on. At least that’s my opinion. Others don’t seem to share it.
For dinner, I went to a tapas bar to try some things that I still hadn’t tried. I finally tried some Iberian ham. It was excellent, but being the southerner that I am, I came away thinking that Virginia ham was just as good and a lot less expensive – at least in Virginia. I also had a Russian Salad, which basically is a potato salad with egg and vegetables and mayonnaise. The highlight of the meal, however, was the patatas bravas. This consisted of fried potato chunks in a pair of sauces, one a spicy tomato-based sauce and the other a horseradishy-mayonnaise sauce. All of the tapas that I tried that night were very good, but the patatas bravas took the proverbial cake.
On my first full day I did something that I rarely do on these trips – I hit the tour bus. One of the reasons is that I enjoyed the little tour I had on the bus in Montpellier when I was trying to kill time. The other reason is that I was having trouble orienting myself in Barcelona and I thought it would give me a better idea of what the most prominent landmarks were in Barcelona and a general idea of where to find them. In this way, I figured that I could go back and hit the places with which I was most impressed.
The tour bus consisted of two lines – a western line and an eastern line. Both take between two and two-and-a-half hours. The bus isn’t really a good way to see any of the sights, but it is a good way to orient oneself with the city. On the western line, the highlights included the Olympic Stadium, Camp Nou and Plaza Espanyol. The highlight of the eastern line was the Sagrada Familía, though it was little more than a drive-by. Both tours started in Plaza Catalunya and went south to the monument of Columbus at the port and came in from the north past La Pedrera, another famous Gaudi work.
The day, Friday, also was La Diada de Sant Jordi, or St. George’s Day. Evidently, this day is celebrated in different ways in various places in which St. George is the patron saint. In Catalan culture, it is celebrated much like Valentines Day in the United States. Traditionally, women are given flowers and men are given books. Sounds a little sexist, but I think in modern times, both sides commonly get flowers and books. Like in the United States, there were people on every corner, as well as in between, selling flowers on this day and there also were hundreds of little outdoor bookshops opened for the day. On top of that, there were free concerts and street shows going on everywhere so the middle of the city was very crowded and very lively. I walked around with the crowds for a while, but the weather still wasn’t cooperating so I wasn’t out as long as I normally would have been.
I now had a general idea of what I wanted to do on my final full day in Barcelona. (The trip was much shorter than I had originally planned.) I was hoping the weather would finally cooperate but was willing to go with the flow in any event. The next day will be in the next post or two.
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