I'd never flown before, but to be honest the only bad thing was the stupid amount of time it takes to get through the airport and onto the bloody plane! No fear of heights, nothing like that...

Oh, and I didn't get a window seat! And I had to throw my sun tan lotion away. Luckily there wasn't any sun in Barcelona, so that was ok :)

written by  martin_b on March 26, 2007 from Manchester, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Barcelona
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Anyway, we eventually made the centre, and wandered around the Passeig de Gracia area in the sunshine (lots of Gaudi inspired hexagonal tesselated pavements) ,found the hotel (an impressive piece of navigation I thought), and got setled down. We were surprised there were quite as many English people about: it turned out that England were playing Andorra in Barcelona that evening, which we hadn't expected.

We figured out pretty quickly how to spot the Spanish: they were the ones wearing thick coats and scarves on what we thought was a warm day. I had imagined them to be a stylish, sophisticated lot, but Barcelonans do seem to be a rather drab bunch, truth be told, unlike the city they live in, which is certainly vibrant.

We had lunch in what you might call an authentic Barcelonan cafe. The lady owner clearly was not a fan of foreigners coming into her cafe to eat and giving her money. It's probably a good job we couldn't understand a word she was saying. I liked the robust food: sausage and bean soup, sardines, bread, wine, lemonade, and an orange for 7.50 Euros!

Later, we decided to look round the Barri Gotic area: it has a fabulous mix of old and very Spanish buildings, and stuff going back to Roman times. The walls can still be seen, a piece of aqueduct, and hidden through one unpromising gateway are a set of wonderful, complete Roman pillars, massive things.

The Cathedral is called La Seu, and the area around it is particularly old and wonderful.

The little old lady sat on the ground in the right hand pic looks unprepossessing, but she was singing the most marvellous opera-type music with great grace. At first we thought it was a recording coming from somewhere, until we noticed her. Round the other side of La Seu was a superb classical guitarist, so 10/10 for busking talent.

Inside La Seu is unusual: in England, cathedrals usually have cloisters which are just a square of grass. This one has palm trees and a pond in the middle. It's all a bit ostentatious though, not my favourite building overall, but it's worth visiting for the roof and the area around it.

written by  martin_b on March 26, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Barcelona
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Las Ramblas itself has to be seen I guess, not exactly high culture, but they do have some nice living statues, well, lots of them.

Eventually they do get boring, but the competition is very high here, so the quality is good.

Montjuic has all sorts of stuff going on. A funicular railway and cable car lead to the top, where there's a castle overlooking the city: it's quite plain, but worth the trip for the view.

Downslope a bit are various other attractions (you can't move in Barcelona without finding things to do or see): there's the Olympic stadium, a botanic gardens (we accidentally sneaked in the back way without paying, after taking an unorthodox route down the hill (straight down, through the trees!)).

I am of course a hippy at heart, so here's me hugging a tree, and some eucalyptus bark (one of my favourite trees.)

There's also an absolutely huge art gallery, the Museu d'Art de Catalunya. It really needs a couple of days to take in, and we were blown away by it. It just has everything, from old church frescoes through medieval paintings to modern art and some Gaudi. We just picked some bits, and decided that we definitely didn't like Miro (who gets his own museum, but honestly I don't get it!)

written by  martin_b on March 27, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Barcelona
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Anyway, we took the metro, and found the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous church which is still being built. It is quite as amazing as it's reputation, and pictures probably work best;

The doors have all sorts of hidden details, secret messages, that would probably appeal to Da Vinci code fans;

And the tortoise just reminded me of Terry Pratchett...

If you go, it's well worth going in the museum bit, which does a great job of explaining Gaudi's influences, and the way he designed his buildings upside down, with weights and chains.

We had some lunch nearby, in a sort of Spanish/Italian cafe (soup with short pasta and a poached egg, eggcellent!), and then we went to the Casa Battlo, another Gaudi building, to avoid the rain.

It didn't work, really, but at least it had stopped by the time we got to the roof, which is the most distinctive bit of the building. The chimneys and other structures up there are quite unique.

It's also worth visiting Casa Amatller if you are there, as it's right next door, and an equally wonderful building by a different architect. It reminds me inside of John Rylands Library in Manchester. I think both are inspired by libraries in Oxford.

written by  martin_b on March 28, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Barcelona
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In the morning, we went to the Sant Pere area, and successfully got completely lost. this had the positive side effect that we saw a wonderful area we would have missed, and in particular, the church that gives the area it's name. It has no tourists, and from the outside, it's just plain brick walls, but go in and it's a different matter. It's huge, dark, and built completely of domes and apses: so unlike anything in England. there are no tourists, just one of the finest buildings in the city (but in no way ostentatious).

After that, we found our way eventually to the Art Deco Palau de Musica Catalonia (the name gives away what it is I guess). Sadly, we couldn't get in as you have to book tours in advance. But the outside is very special, dramatic.

Maybe the one place that most reflects how Barcelonans think is this market. If we build a market in Oldham, we will rip up whatever was there, and build a big shed.

The Barcelonans, though, excavated the site, found an old monastery, preserved it with a viewing gallery and built it into a new market, which is a dramatic building in its own right.

Anyway, finally we moved on to the Parc Guell, probably the second most famous bit of the city. It's all full of tourists, but a bit anarchic at the same time, especially up the hill.

But anyway, then we got to the pretty bits.

And at the bottom of the park, a couple of Gaudi's most fairytale buildings still look fantastic (testament to the huge team of workers more than Gaudi's methods, I think!)

Just uphill from there is the famous Gaudi lizard, and a whole staircase full of odd mosaic pieces.

I think the best bit though, and missed by many people, is the mosaic ceilings underneath the pillars.

Finally, in the evening we ate tapas on Las Ramblas. The English menu wasn't well translated, but the "Bull Balls" were delicious.

written by  martin_b on March 29, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Barcelona
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