Barcelona! It's the city everyone who had visited raved about, so when Eric had a conference there for his PhD, I jumped on board. After telling my Mom of our plans, she jumped on board too. And so we toured the city together with Leo in tow.
We just returned last night from our time in this lovely city. Here is how we spent our days:
Day 1: La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell
Day 2: Gothic quarter, La Rambla, La Boqueria market, Barcelona Cathedral, and Ciutadella Park
Day 3: La Padrera and Casa Batllo
Day 4: Gracia, El Raval, and La Rambla
Day 5: Barceloneta and Labyrinth Park
Day 1: La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell
Before Eric's conference began, we had to tick off the most famous of Barcelona's landmarks - La Sagrada Familia. I heard many wonderful things about this masterpiece of a church, Antoni Gaudi's seminal work, but I was still unprepared for the amount of awe I felt during our visit. My first words upon entering were "holy crap."
From the astounding trunk-like pillars to the minutest of details in the doors, everywhere you look in La Sagrada Familia, you'll fine something at which to marvel. The structure, the light, the symbols - it's all fascinating and you can easily spend hours in wonder at this gem of a landmark.
After our tour, we grabbed lunch across the road (Eric and I tried the local favorites of paella and tapas) and then we attempted to make our way to Park Güell, another of Gaudi's famous works. We got a bit lost along the way and by the time we arrived, tickets had sold out, so we couldn't enter the most well-known areas. We were also in a hurry to get back, so we just strolled around the outside of the park for a few minutes. I do wish we had more time to spend at this site, but Eric needed to attend his conference and our energy tanks were running low from a long day of travel the day before and a morning full of standing and walking. We told ourselves we would return to Park Güell, but there was much more to see in Barcelona and we never made our way back.
