European holiday, Part 5

Barcelona is a wonderful city. We left London on Wednesday morning and flew to Barcelona for 2 days. J served his mission in Madrid and had never visited Barcelona so we dedided to see it.

We spent the first day visiting the Plaza Catalunya, walking up and down Las Rambles, and shopping for souvenirs. Las Ramblas is Barcelona's most famous street that supposedly never closes. We tired out by 11pm, but things seemed to be going full steam even then.




I loved the feeling of Spain and could tell a marked difference from the London streets. First, it was much warmer and sunny and we were grateful to have short shirt sleeves. The people were also more relaxed and leisurely in their pace and seemed to enjoy just relaxing on the streets. There were cafes filled with people and many plazas and benches that provided good resting spots. Spain also reminded me of living in South America and I loved the colorful buildings with beautiful iron balconies.



We ate a great lunch of Spanish tortilla and ham sandwiches and a salad. Eating seems to be very important to the Spaniards. They eat 4 times a day and close their stores from 2-4 for lunch. They eat a small breakfast in the morning and have their main meal in the afternoon. This is followed by a merienda or small snack at 5:00 and then they have dinner between 9 and 10 pm.  Seriously, there were families with small kids, elderly people, and everyone in between out on the streets at 10:00 just sitting down for dinner. They have a great national menu and seem to love their food. Traditional menu items are paella, tortilla, salad, cured meats like chorizo, bread, white beans, and chocolate and churros.

The second day in Barcelona we saw the stadium for the Futbol Club of Barcelona (FCB) called Camp Nou. it was an impressive tour where we went from the ground level to the press box and through the locker room. We then saw Gaudi's famous cathedral La Sagrada Familia and were impressed with how light and airy it was inside, especially compared to the dark cathedrals we had seen. We walked by La Pederera, another famous Gaudi fascade, and then walked through the Gothic neighborhoods of Barcelona.




 

The Gothic streets were some of my favorites because they were built in the 1500's and so narrow that they were only open to foot traffic and small motorcycles. They seemed to wind around forever and I felt like I was was walking through the scenery of an exotic movie except it was real. There was a real charm to the buildings and a mix of small shops with living spaces above.

We then made our way to the Mediterranean sea and sat on the sandy beach for an hour. It was a full moonlit night and we loved cooling our tired feet in the water. We were offered drugs several times along the beach making it a definite memorable experience.


Barcelona was an interesting city and is kind of its own country. They speak Catalan, as well as Spanish, which is a mix of French, Spanish and other romance languages. All of the street and subway signs were in both Catalan and Spanish and the influence of the Catalan government is prevalent.  I was glad we were able to see this city and warm up our tongues for speaking Spanish full time in Madrid.