Wed 14 Dec 2005
I thought a 3 days unplanned city trip in Barcelona will be safe and easy, I was a bit wrong since I know little about Barcelona but in the end the trip was very good. The main problem was to find a hotel at a decent price, I arrived late in the night and it was rainy, I had 14 Kg of luggages.
When you leave the airport in train you arrive in the Barcelona train station called Sants. They are many hotels around this train stations mostly four stars. I managed to find a nice three stars Hotel , the NH Numancia (Avenida Numancia, Check Rate). I paid 82 Euro/night (Breakfast include) but then they only had rooms available for two nights.
One of my concern was to find a room for the last night. Anyway, It was Saturday so I thought I could go out and have some fun, I went outside but I found no place I could go, in fact, the Sant area is not in the center, in this part of the city you have hotels, some shopping centers on Avenida Diagonal and that’s it. So I gave up.
My room at the NH Numancia Hotel
Sunday morning, I went for a long walk on Avenida Diagonal, I don’t have a map of the city, just a brief list of attractions to see (none of them in my area). I walked on Avenida Diagonal until the university area. There the rain started to kick in again. I went at my hotel and I did some writing, my Barcelonian friend sent a message for an appointment at 6 p.m, at last, I will have someone to guide and advices me about the city. We made an appointment at Plaza Cataluña, I believe it is the main square in the city with Plaza Espanya.
Barcelona by night on Sunday is animated plenty of people in the streets. We walked on the beautiful Passeig de Gracia , where you can see the Casa Batllo and the Casa Mila also called ‘La pedrera’ both of them where designed by the genius Antoni Gaudi. We walked until the port there I saw the Colon (supposed to point in direction of America).
The Casa Batllo a treasure of architecture designed by Antoni Gaudi between 1904-1906.You can admire the poetry of the facace
La casa Mila also known as La Pedrera built between 1905 and 1910 and designed by the prolific Antoni Gaudi.
The colon showing the path to America
Monday morning, I visited the Montjuic, very great place, when I saw it from the Plaza Espanya I had a feeling of ‘Déjà vu’,I’m very attracted by such place go figure why. I did the two pictures below on the paseo Maria Cristina at front the Palau Nacional ( Catalunya art museum), they are at the Montjuic. On the right picture is the Fira Barcelona is convention/conference centre, The Fira Barcelona got about 80 fairs per year attracting as many as 3 millions of visitors.
Bella vista of Barcelona from the Montjuic
La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family)
On the afternoon, I went for a long walk from the Montjuic until La Sagrada Familia, it was a pleasure to discover the streets of Barcelona, I really enjoyed the atmosphere that day, it was sunny. After at least, one hour of walking in the streets of Barcelona , I arrived at La Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi, the man was killed by a car when he crossed the street, it was in June 1926. During, his lifetime Antoni Gaudi developed his own architectural style even if he was categorized has being Art Nouveau what he did was slightly different. The uncompleted Sagrada Familia was one of his masterpiece, he also designed la Casa Battlo , la Casa Mila, Colonia Guell, and Park Guell. Gaudi was known has being a global architect crossing the limit between formal architecture and decoration.
The work to build la Sagrada Familia started in 1882 the bishop Mr. Urquinaona placed the foundation stone, it was not easy sailing to build la Sagrada because many disagreement among the architect. Gaudi presented a new project that set new direction a first of the temple was completed in 1894. Gaudi never its creation completed as he died in a streetcar accident, after, his death La Sagrada Familia endured many calamities, some parts were destroyed during the civils war of 1936 .
Under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, architect Francesc Quintana would restore the damaged parts ( the crypt). The final work will be completed in 1976 with the Façade of Passion as being the last piece. The work on the Façade started in 1954
, 3 architects were selected to complete it.
La torre Agbar
Not too far away from La Sagrada Famiala about 25 minutes of walk, is the Torre Agbar, a bizarre tower strangely located in a part of the city outside of the center.
This tower is 144,4 meters and its one of the three tallest buildings in the city.
The building has night illumination. The entire tower is illuminated in blue, yellow, pink and red by 4,500 lights placed over the façade. Making it visible from far away.
That was the last thing I visited for this day, I had to change hotel, I moved from the NH Numancia because no rooms were available for the next night, I went to the AC Capital Barcelona Hotel.
The AC Capital Hotel (check rate/booking) is very nice, I enjoyed a large bedroom with a mini-bar full of drinks (no alcohols) , video-on-demand system (I saw Kill Bill part II) the architecture of this hotel was a surprise, I was at the 6th floor and it pretty look like you are walking in a boat a large cruiseliner and doesn’t look like a hotel. I loved this aspect, I will go back again at this hotel next time, but the hotel is not located in the center, you have to take the Metro station Espanya , then the Ferrocaril until station Ildelfon-Cerda .
Dona I Ocell (Woman and Bird)
On my way, to the Parque Güell, I saw the Dona I Ocell by Joan Miró, the great catalan artist.
Parque Guell
Registered in the Unesco World Heritage list, the Parque Guell was designed in the early 20th century, the initial project was to have an housing site but this idea failed and the Guell family who owned the site, sold it to the city and it became a permanent park in 1923. The park is locate on the montaña del Carmel and has a view of the city. Gaudi who designer the Parque lived in a house over there for a while.
After, my visit of the Guell Park, I spent my last hours in Las Ramblas and the puerto, two interesting place for a walk.
La boqueria market by the Rambla (lots of chocolates and fruits are sold there)