Exploring Barcelona (cont.)
After taking a chill day for relaxing while Maddy was a bit under the weather, we sent off to visit the Sagrada Família, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. It’s design came from famed Spanish architect and designer Antonio Gaudí, whose influence and imprint are seen all around Barcelona. Work began on the basilica in 1882 and it is expected to be completed in the next few years. It forms a prominent feature of the Barcelona skyline. There were a lot of people there. We toured the church using an audio guide and took a ride up the elevator on the Nativity façade and then walked down a long set of spiral stairs back to the bottom. The top was a bit high for my comfort and I didn’t really look out until we got a ways down the stairs. The church was beautiful and had many things to look at. It’s probably the primary tourist attraction in the city, and well worth seeing. After spending several hours touring the basilica we then tried to find a specialty store that was relatively nearby that Maddy was looking for. After that, we had a nice lunch at a cafe with some roadside tables. After lunch we decided to walk a little and then targeted going by Casa Batlló (another Gaudí design). There were large crowds in front of it. Afterwards, realized we were sort of close to the Gothic Quarter, so we decided to walk through there. Maddy got to go into a English store her father recommended. We walked down through the the quarter, past the Cathedral de Barcelona and then went to an open plaza and got some cocktails. We decided we’d try to walk back to the Airbnb (which was a bit of a hike). As we were about to leave it started to rain a bit. We had a 45 min walk most of the time getting rained on, but it was pleasant. I was ready for some rest as we had walked almost 7.5 miles this day.
Up until this point the travel around Barcelona had been via Uber and Bolt. I finally managed to figure out the public transportation (which is pretty good) and got a pass that would work for the remainder of the trip (should have done it sooner). After a relatively chill day we took a bus back to the beautiful Parc de la Ciutadella where I had photographed ballerina Daria as Maddy identified some greenhouses in the park that featured some plant life that interested her. That provided a nice reason to visit the park again. Afterwards we walked past the Arc de Triomf, passing by the Pau Claris Institute and the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia where are housed in beautiful buildings along an open parkway. They seemed to be setting up for a major festival coming in a few days. We got caught in a bit of rain and walked through the Gothic Quarter. We got lunch at a nice little place that I had stumbled across on one of my previous travels. We went to the Palau Martorell where I had hoped to see an exhibit of photos of Picasso, but it had ended and we ended up seeing an exhibit on Japanese kibuki. Afterwards we walked past another Gaudí building, Palau Guell, then strolled up La Rambla, went through the Gothic Quarter a bit more and eventually caught a metro back to the Airbnb. We finished off the evening with dinner at our frequent favorite La Lola on top of the Arenas. I was ready for rest after another day of walking where we covered almost 9.5 miles.
After all that walking we took a relatively chill day, but we still managed to walk almost 3 miles. The next day we took bus to Gothic Quarter and visited the Palau de la Música Catalana, a concert hall that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Went inside, very beautiful building and took some nice pictures. After that we walked over to the Cathedral de Barcelona and this time went inside. This cathedral was built between the 13th and 15th centuries. It has a very impressive gothic look. We took the elevator up to the roof for a nice view of the surrounding city. Besides the great view, in a back corner of the roof they had set up a very cool virtual reality room with headsets that showed the history of the founding of the city, built around the cathedral, with some dizzying flyover views around the city and inside the cathedral. A very worthwhile surprise. After that we took metro home. In evening we went back up the hill to the Nacional d’Art de Catalunya art museum (on a free entry) seeking out the rooftop viewing area. It took a bit of searching around until we found the elevator to the upper 360-deg terrace. This provided a beautiful view of the city from above. We spent a while in a light rain sitting and admiring the view. As we headed back we could see them setting up for the big upcoming Festes de la Mercè 2024 which would take place at several locations around the city, including the area below the museum. The evening ended with a light dinner at the Airbnb, then watched some Netflix.