Wow! It's literally been a month since the last time I've had a chance to sit down and type up a blog... Craziness! Needless to say, it was quite busy around here during April! Between trips to Barcelona, Ireland, and Lago di Garda and two groups of visitors, we haven't had much down time! :) However, as crazy as it was, we had an absolutely wonderful time exploring new places and spending time with great friends from home! :)
Needless to say, after such an eventful month, we wound up with countless amounts of pictures... Pictures that we're still trying to work our way through! :) So, please bear with me if it takes a little while to get all of our trips and visits up on the blog... Sorting through all of the pictures is proving to be a very looooooong process! :)
But, on the bright side, I have managed to get through all of our pictures from our trip to Barcelona at the beginning of April... Yay! :) Before I have you look at all of our pictures from Barcelona, let me just preface this by saying that we weren't quite sure to expect from Barcelona. In our opinion, it was kind of a "sleeper city"... We both wanted to go there, but neither of us had high expectations (largely because we didn't have much background knowledge of the city... We had simply heard that it was a "cool place to visit". :)) for the city. However, after spending four days in Barcelona, we both fell in love with the place! :) It's such a colorful, vibrant, friendly, beautiful city that is so full of life!! The people were so friendly, the food was simply delicious (tapas and paella...yum!!), the wine was outstanding, the architecture was stunning, the Spanish and Catalan languages are beautiful, and the atmosphere of the city was filled with so much energy! It's now one of our favorite cities to date! After spending the weekend there, we both agreed that it was too short and we plan on going back again someday. So, without further ado... Here's a quick recap of our Barcelona adventure... Enjoy! (Oh, and be prepared... We went a little camera happy while we were there - shocking, I know! :))
A cool sign we saw on the subway platform... While waiting for the train, we counted all the cities we had been to... Great way to pass the time! :)
Our apartment...
Our room was on the second floor (the one with the balcony going all the way across the side of the building... We had that balcony, as well as the little patio balcony on the left side of the building... Nice! :)). It was a cute little place, with a great view, in an awesome location!
The street in front of our apartment...
Upon our arrival in Barcelona, we decided to explore the neighborhood that we were staying in... It's a newer neighborhood (the La Ribera district) with many cute shops and cafes. This wine store was one of our favorites... I especially like the sign out front! :)
Some artwork on the building across the street from our apartment...
Our first night, we headed to Taller de Tapas for dinner... Yum!! The Spanish have the right idea when it comes to food... They typically have heavier lunches (typically later in the afternoon), and then they eat tapas (small appetizers/snacks) for dinner. It's also very typical for them to have dinner around 9 p.m. or later (that part I wasn't a big fan of, but the smaller portions for dinner is a great idea! :)).
Inside the Catedral de Barcelona...
It's funny... Brian and I walked into this cathedral and wandered through it for a little while. We then discussed the fact that we've been to so many cathedrals since we've been living in Europe, that they're all starting to kind of look similar... We both agreed that after the Vatican, not much can really top that... A couple of hours later, we quickly realized how wrong we were... :)
The Catedral de Barcelona...
Looking into the Catedral's gardens...
This was a very unique sculpture that we saw in a couple of places throughout the city... We're still not sure of the significance of it, but irregardless, it's quite interesting to look at! :)
A Barcelona side street...
The Mirador de Colon...
A monument to Christopher Columbus... He's supposed to be pointing to the "New World", but unfortunately, he's actually pointing in the opposite direction! :)
The Rambla de Mar... It's a wooden footbridge that leads to the area that Barcelona recovered from the sea in 1992.
Walking across the Rambla de Mar...
As we were wandering through the city, we came across this crazy sight... They were holding a ski jump competition, where the competitors would ski down a ski jump and then do some flips and land in the river below... Very strange! I can't imagine that's very good for skis and ski boots! :)
Walking the promenade by the river...
I thought this statue was so cute! :)
There are so many colorful statues such as this one that can be found throughout the city... Love it! :)
The Arc de Triomf of Barcelona...
We wandered through the Parc de la Ciutadella and found this gorgeous Italianate fountain designed by Gaudi...
After our walk through the park, we headed to the infamous La Sagrada Familia... The cathedral that was begun by Gaudi, but was never finished... This was one of the highlights of the trip... This is the view from the front of the cathedral...
(After Gaudi's death, they found photographs of Gaudi's plans for the cathdral, and they are now trying to finish building it. It's estimated to be completed in 2026.)
The back of the cathedral...
Look at that artwork!
Look at the detail on the door... Amazing!!
Now, remember how I said that Brian and I were going to be proven wrong about our opinion that cathedrals starting to look similar? Well, here is where we quickly realized how very wrong we were... :)
When we walked through the doors of this cathedral, this is what we saw...
Breathtaking!!
(Litearlly, both of us walked in, our mouths dropped open, and all we could do was stare in awe at this gorgeous sight... :) I actually got goosebumps as I walked through the door of that cathedral! I don't think I've ever seen anything this beautiful in all of our travels...)
There are truly no words to describe how absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful it is in there...
Looking towards the back of the cathedral...
When completed, it is anticipated that the windows will all have stained glass in them... Can you imagine what it will look like with all of that color streaming in? Stunning!
The ceiling of the cathedral...
Looking towards the front of the cathedral...
The sun streaming through the windows cast colorful light everywhere...
After our visit to La Sagrada Familia, we headed out on a Moderniste Architecture walking tour of the city... In case you haven't yet realized, Barcelona is known for their architecture. :)
Our first stop was the Casa de les Punxes (Casa Terrades), or also known as the "House of Spikes"...
The view of the front of the "House of Spikes"...
This was the Casa Comalat... It's unusual because it has two different facades. The front of the house looks very formal...
... While the back of the house is more playful... Interesting, huh? :)
That's me playing the tour guide, with my Barcelona guide book in hand... I took my role very seriously, as you can see! :)
Our next stop was La Pedrera (Casa Mila), also created by Salvador Gaudi.
La Pedrera is actually an apartment building in downtown Barcelona... I can't even begin to imagine how much it must cost to live there! :)
This is a view of Manzana de la Discordia. Here you have three different moderniste architectural designs located right next to each other...
However, the most popular of the three is the Casa Batllo, also designed by Gaudi...
(Are you noticing the trend... Gaudi is one of Barcelona's most well-known and beloved architects... He had an amazing imagination for design... Granted, he had alot of help from hallucinogenic drugs. :) But, irregardless, he still must have been incredibly creative to come up with these kinds of designs! :))
This building is also known by the locals as the "Casa dels Ossos" (House of Bones).
Look at the difference in architecture here... The one on the right is by Gaudi, and the house on the left is called "Casa Amatller" by the architect Puig i Cadalfach...
Amazing!!
(Can you tell I'm quite a Gaudi fan?! :))
That evening we opted for a dinner in, so that we could sit on our patio and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the view... All while dining on our Spanish bread and cheese, with Caprese salad, and sipping on some delicious Spanish wine. :)
However, we ran into a slight problem... Now, being that Spain is known for their wine, you would expect to be able to find a corkscrew for sale somewhere in the city... Not so much! Being that the corkscrew in our apartment was broken, we set out in search of a corkscrew on our first night in the city, but to no avail. We actually asked the waiter at the restaurant that we ate at if he could sell us a corkscrew from the restaurant. He said he would go check and he left our table. Soon afterwards, we realized that there must have been a slight language barrier involved. :) Our waiter came back to our table to drop off, not a corkscrew, but two wine corks... Nice! :) The following evening, we found a small grocery store that sold inexpensive corkscrews, so we bought one. Only to get home and have it break on us before we could uncork the bottle... So, back to the store we went for yet another corkscrew... Finally, after three corkscrews, and two wine corks, we were finally able to open our bottle of Spanish wine! :)
The next morning we headed to Parc Guell, also a Gaudi creation. :)
The park had a Hansel and Gretel fairytale-like feel to it... When we walked into it, we were immediately greeted by a gingerbread house... How cute! :)
The tiled ceiling inside Sala Hipostila...
The Casa Museu Gaudi...
This museum contains furniture, drawings, and designs by Gaudi...
This reminded me of the "Sound of Music" tour I went on with my parents in Salzburg, Austria! :)
The park has 3 kilometers (2 miles) of paths and porticoes that were all man-made and designed by Gaudi...
Again, you can see where Gaudi's use of hallucinogenic drugs was very helpful in designing this place! :)
As we were walking back towards the entrance, we came across this little area... It looked so pretty and spring-like! :)
After our tour of Parc Guell, we headed to La Rambla, the most famous promenade in Spain. :)
We then headed up to Montjuic, a bluff overlooking the city. It was the sight of the World Fair in 1929 and the Summer Olympics in 1992. This is the view from our way up...
The faint outline of the Olympic rings... Left over from the '92 Olympic games...
The view from the Swimming area from the Olympics...
The Olympic pool...
It didn't look to clean to swim in, but there were some kids splashing away in there! :)
The Montjuic Castle...
I wanted to get a shot of us with Barcelona in the background, but we couldn't find someone to take our picture... So, I opted for the self-portrait (Brian absolutely LOVES when I make him pose for one of these portraits... Notice the sarcasm?! :))
However, shortly after my self-portrait, we came across someone to actually take our picture... yay! :)
Brian with Barcelona in the distance... :)
The Port of Barcelona...
Cute artwork on the side of the building. :)
On our last night, we wandered through our neighborhood and got a couple night shots of it. I thought this window display was pretty cool! :)
Love this! :)
Our apartment... Too cute! :)
If you look closely, you can see us standing in the mirror, posing for the picture... Yep, we're dorks like that! :)
Heading back to Germany...
We arrived at the bus terminal about 30 minutes early to get the bus back to the airport. They sold us two tickets and we boarded the bus, only to find that there were no seats left... Nice! (We noticed that alot of families allowed their children to sit in the seats instead of on their laps... Lovely!)... So our "seats" ended up being at the back of the bus in a little stairway near the door... Fun, fun! :) Our bus then left about 2 minutes after we boarded the bus. Apparently, in Barcelona, when the bus is full, it just leaves... Instead of waiting until it's actually supposed to leave (which in that case was 25 minutes after that). Thank goodness we got there early, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get another bus to the airport for 3 hours, which meant that we would have missed our flight... Crazy!
Our view during the ride to the airport... :)
On the plane and heading home... :)
Flying over the mountains on the way back to Germany... So pretty! :)
1 comment:
Awesome pictures...I loved Barcelona. I went with three of my sister's when they came to visit me in Germany. Had such a great time.....loved the Sangria and Tapas!
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