Barcelona, Spain

Our next stop on the cruise was Barcelona. Both of us had visited Barcelona on our previous trip to Europe. We took the shuttle bus from the port which dropped us off right by the Columbus Monument. The monument depicts Columbus pointing to the New World. This was the prefect starting point as it dropped us off at one end of Las Ramblas. It is a busy street that leads from the port to the centre of Barcelona. There are all kinds of street performers, stores and restaurants.  Many of the street performers will don makeup and costumes and stand perfectly still like statues. One performer was dressed like the aliens from the Aliens movies while another was dressed like Gaudi.

We made our way slowly up the street and made our way to 2 different buildings designed by Gaudi. The first was La Pedrera which is now the Gaudi museum and the other was the building across the street where you actually get the tickets. We were only interested in taking pictures so we did not go in.

Our next stop was Park Guell which was also designed by Gaudi. It was originally supposed to be a village. Now it is just a park which has a very nice view of the city. It is very scenic and there are many building designed by him to see. It was pretty crowded but it was a very beautiful park to walk around to get away from the busy city.

After the park we started our walk to Sagrada Familia which is a Cathedral designed by Gaudi. Construction began in 1882 and is not expected to be finished until 2020. We had previously seen the cathedral but had only really gotten to see it from one side. Apparently the original designs had been lost during the Spanish Civil War so they have had problems trying to finish the work. It will interesting to go back one day when it is finished to see it completed and without scaffolding, cranes or construction equipment blocking our view.

The only other thing we wanted to see was the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona and thankfully it was on our way back to where the bus stopped. We really enjoyed the architecture and overall feel of Barcelona. There are so many fascinating buildings and so much history on every street. It was nice just to walk around and see so many things even if it was a little tiring.

You can buy birds at Las Ramblas

Sagrada Familia from Parc Guell