To the left is me at the Christopher Columbus statue in Las Ramblas, central Barcelona.Below.. our campside in VillaNova from where we caught a bus then train into the hectic Barcelona central!
Below is the most famous Gaudi sculpture, La Sagrada Famigla which has taken 200 years to date .. and is still incomplete
Above right.. me with a Matador in Las Ramblas.. he looked so amazing we gave him a Euro and had a picture took! lol
Above.. another building with Gaudi's signature.. and another on the right as well. Well you have to see lots of Gaudi.. he's the essence of Barcelona.
Coraleen and I just across from the Olympic Village with a view looking down across the City.
Having left our R and R behind us in Tarragona we moved North to Barcelona. Being the scardy cats we are after having read about petty thieves and pickpockets in Barcelona and already experiencing it in Valencia we opted to stay just south of Barcelona and get the Train in each day.
Villa Nova was the most amazing camp ground I have ever seen in my life. It would have been about 100ha, three huge swimming pools (of which one was inside), a supermarket which would put Greenlane Foodtown to shame, wifi throughout the camp, facilities with individual sink, mirrors and blowwave areas, full bar and restaurant, takeaway restaurant, disco.. you get the picture!! Unfortunately we couldnt take advantage of most of it as our days were spend getting up early and catching the train to Barcelona to see the sights.
Villa Nova was the most amazing camp ground I have ever seen in my life. It would have been about 100ha, three huge swimming pools (of which one was inside), a supermarket which would put Greenlane Foodtown to shame, wifi throughout the camp, facilities with individual sink, mirrors and blowwave areas, full bar and restaurant, takeaway restaurant, disco.. you get the picture!! Unfortunately we couldnt take advantage of most of it as our days were spend getting up early and catching the train to Barcelona to see the sights.
On the Friday night there was a Disco advertised as starting at 10 .. so we trotted off. What a disappointment. The average age was 12!! Obviously this is where a lot of the school trips go and there were just hundreds of intermediate school age kids.. and as you know I am not particularly child friendly .. so we didnt stay long.. this was repeated on the Saturday and Sunday nights too and not a single suitable aged single adult in sight!!
Those of you with European dishwahers will know about the salt in the water.. the light flashes for more salt in the water.. well ALL the water has salt in it.. the shower, toilets, handbasin, laundry etc and of course we went to fill the jug for tea and coffee and a woman was trying to tell us we couldnt drink it. And it goes without saying we knew better as we were boiling it so it would be safe. Have you ever drunk tea and coffee made with salt water... BEWARE of this little trick.. I was a wee bit sick for a while!!
Barcelona was huge. We opted for the Barcelona Touristic Bus and took the 2 day option which allowed us to ride around for 6 hours on three different routes the first day and decide what we would like to see more of and then go back the following morning and get on and off at the various stops. At one stage the dialogue said .. the population of Barcelona is 1.5m .. and I thought.. thats not big.. and about three stops later they announced.. looking in the distance are the suburbs where 3.5m people live.. why the hell they didnt say a population of 5m I dont know but I guess thats the tourism industry for you. We now consider ourselves experts on Gaudi (who by the way had a huge influence on Barcelonas architecture) and Coraleen frequently said.. look at that you can see Gaudi did that.. quite impressed with our little bit of knowledge we were.. could even be a tour guide ourselves I feel!
There was an awful lot to see as we trotted around clutching our bags as though our life depended on it even though we only had about Euro50 between us! Las Ramblas deserves a special mention with street entertainers dressed as Matadors, Soldiers and much more.. even gave them a Euro to have our picture taken with them. We gave the churches and monuments a miss (I guess we are all churched and monumented out!!) but did enjoy the La Sagrada Famiglia which began being built in 1892 and still isnt finished. It was started by Gaudi and has continued to be added on to.. its five huge spires towering over the city. Even Picasso studied drawing here .. now that was something I didnt know.. although of course there is lots I didnt know I just pretend... And of course there is the Olympic stadium.. actually without the Olympics in 1992 there wouldnt have been as much of the city to see as it seemed they built most of it for that!
And then it was over and it was pack up camp time and off to Barcelona Port to catch the Ferry to Rome
1 comment:
Barcelona is a really beautiful place and for sure it's worth visiting. It's one of those places you want to move to after visiting. It's so beautiful, so vibrant, the city that never sleeps and would never bore you. I've been to Barcelona 5 times and I get to know it better and better and like it more and more. It has everything one can ever dream of: great people, amazing weather,cheap air flights and rooms in hotels in Barcelona, history, great artists, tasty food and that essence a city need to be just perfect. One of the greatest things in Barcelona is its architecture. It's not only Antonio Gaudi who makes it special but every building in Barcelona is different and one is more beautiful then another.
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