Dachs Thoughts

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.

Exploring Barcelona

My new lodgings were away from the main tourist center, but still had lots of groceries and restaurants around them. Moreover, there were a number of interesting sights within walkable distances from the apartment. It was a nice artistically decorated apartment and it was a great place to stay for a couple of weeks. One of the models from the retreat, Laetetia the ballerina, had connected me up with a Ukrainian ballerina/model who lived near Barcelona, Daria, so I actually had a photoshoot with her in a park in Barcelona the day after the retreat ended. It was a nice couple of hour shoot and just as we were wrapping up it started to rain. My Uber took a long time getting there and I just made it in before it really started to downpour. That completed my people photography for the trip, but it was nice to squeeze in the one different kind of shoot. For the remainder of the trip my photography was limited to travel and scenery shots with my new Fuji camera. The next few days I spent winding down, organizing my photos, and did a bit of exploring of the area. Maddy arrived 3 days after my retreat ended, and that began the sightseeing/tourit part of the trip.

While we had planned to take a low-key unstructured approach to the vacation, we actually ended up seeing lots of sights over the next two weeks. The only place I had booked prior to the trip was the Basílica de la Sagrada Família church, but we ended up seeing many more sights in and around the city. The area was very walkable and the city had good public transportation that I finally sorted out. We were typically walking 3-4 miles a day with as much as 9 1/2 a few days.

After Maddy’s arrival we had a long brunch at a streetside place that became a regular for us. We then walked around the neighborhood a bit, including through Parc de la Font Florida that had some cool parrots in the trees, and ultimately up the hill to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) which was conveniently up the hill from the Airbnb. It turned out to be a free day, so we went in and went through the Baroque and Renaissance galleries. This was a great place to visit, and provided an beautiful elevated view over the city. Unfortunately one of the signature sights just below, the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, was closed to preserve water in times of drought. Nonetheless, this area provided many beautiful sights and we came back multiple times. We had dinner in our only disappointing (and overly priced) Tapas restaurant, but that was only a blip of the many good meals we had.

The next day we walked back the Montjuïc hill to the MNAC and went through the Medieval and Modern galleries. Of our 3 visits this was the only time we had to pay once we figured out their free schedule (and I even got a senior discount). We then continued exploring and walked around the area. We discovered La Masia del Jardí Botànic (Montjuïc) that had lots of plants and herbs that intrigued Maddy. We continued on and walked around the Olympic area which had some cool views, spaces, and sculptures. Afterwards we headed back down the hill and had a drink in front of the MNAC and watched the sunset. Later we discovered a restaurant in the Arenas de Barcelona, an interesting oval structure that was a former bullring that had been converted into a shopping mall with a number of good restaurants with great views on the top. That place became a centerpiece for a number of our good dinners.