(posted by John)
In April 2010, Jen and I visited Barcelona for the first time. We expected to have a great time, but we were caught off-guard with just how wonderful the city was. It felt like a quaint Paris sitting right on the Mediteranean Sea with a climate similar to San Diego. Sound nice? Oh, and outstanding food, remarkable sites, and a laid back atmosphere. I'm always ready for a trip to Barcelona!
So when we moved to The Netherlands, Barcelona was on the short list of cities we wanted to visit. Not close enough to drive, but the flight is under two hours.
On to our trip! We departed Amsterdam on Friday evening, November 18th. A bus ride to the airport, two hour flight, a short taxi ride to our hotel and we're in the center of Barcelona. Barcelona was originally established by the Romans over 2,000 years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona. Today, it is the capital of the Catalan region of Spain. Catalonia has it's own distinct language and culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia. Like many countries in Europe, Spain has many distinct regions and cultures.
Spanish residents are known for eating dinner late. A typical dinner begins between 10:00 and 11:00pm. We joined right in! We found a great Tapas restaurant and enjoyed a nice dinner.
On Saturday, we started the day by purchasing a two-day ticket on the hop-on, hop-off double decker bus tour. We've done such a tour in a few other European cities as well. It's a great way to get around the city and see all the sites.
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| Barcelona hop-on, hop-off bus tour |
The first stop for us was Parc Quell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell, a Parc designed by Antoni Gaudi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD, a world renown archetect who designed many of the famous Barcelona landmarks. The park is best known for its tiled structures such as a winding park bench and dragon. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the archetecture of the park and the great view it provided of Barcelona.
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| The Feriancek's at Parc Guell |
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| The tiled Dragon garding the entrance to the park |
Next, we visited Tibidabo, home to an amusement park and church on top of the tallest mountain in Barcelona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibidabo. The amusement park was very cute, having been established over 100 years ago. But the real attraction was the view. We had a panoramic view of the entire city and the Mediteranean Sea.
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| Spectacular view of Barcelona |
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| How about some cotton candy? |
Unfortunately, we also had a view of the rain clouds that were rolling in. Pretty quickly the great view was gone. We beared the rain for a short time so we could play on a playground, but then we made our way back down the mountain (via a tram) to our bus and continued on to dinner, where we had the Spanish specialty Paella. Mmmmmmm.
The next morning we awoke to a sunny day! We walked about one kilometer from our hotel to La Sagrada Familia, the cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi on which construction was begun in 1882. The cathedral is not expected to be completed for another 20-30 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia It's pretty cool to see a world famous landmark under contruction. For me, this was the absolute highlight of the trip. Unbelievable archetechture. Beautiful lighting. Breathtaking both inside and out.
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| La Sagrada Familia |
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| Matthew with his audio guide |
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| Beautiful |
Here is a video of the west entrance to the Cathedral:
After spending a couple hours in the cathedral, we walked to the nearest hop-on, hop-off bus stop and made our way to the Picasso Museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_Picasso, a museum dedicated to the works of Picasso during the early years of his life. Although many kids dread the thought of spending time in a museum, Allison, Ryan and Matthew have enjoyed just about every one we've visited in Europe.
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| Occasionally the entrance line is long... |
After our museum visit we took a final bus ride around Barcelona, riding through the park that hosted the 1992 Olympics. We ended the evening with two dinners...stopping first for tapas...
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| Tapas make us happy! |
...and then for a late dinner. We'd like to do this more often!
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| Dinner #2 |
I met one of my AMS colleagues for a meeting on Monday morning while Jen and the kids did a little shopping and eating at the local farmer's market.
It was another great trip and all of us look forward to visiting Barcelona again some day, especially once La Sagrada Familia is completed!
We hope you are well and enjoying the Holiday season.
Take care,
John
