Barcelona

A couple of weekends ago, Dave and I decided to go on a little mini vacation to Barcelona. It's only about a 31/2 hour drive away from where we are living in France. That's right, only 3 1/2 hours to reach beaches, sun, and palm trees. We also found this awesome website they have here called http://www.covoiturage.fr/ where people offer spots in their car for trips to various places, kind of like car pooling. It is a really cheap option for traveling to places in and near France. We got a ride to and from Barcelona for about 55 euros each. It was the cheapest option we discovered and it got us to Barcelona the fastest. We will definitely be using this site again for future trips.We also got a cheap, well rated hotel by using the Hotwire website. You don't get to find out what hotel you get until after you pay, so it can be a bit risky.  But, it does allow you to see the rating of your hotel and we've lucked out the last few times we've used it.  With hotel and transportation taken care of, we heading on our way for a whirlwind weekend tour of Barcelona.

The first night we got in pretty late so we decided to head to bed with plans to get up early in the morning and explore (see...I get up early sometimes). The first stop was La Sagrada Familia, a large Roman Catholic basilica designed by famous architect Antoni Gaudi. The church is still incomplete, but Gaudi began construction on it in 1883 and worked on it up until his death in 1926. The church is still being worked on to this day. It is a crazy building and so weird looking. There is a lot to look at, but it was really cool. We got there early since we didn't have advanced tickets, but the line moved fairly quickly and we got inside only having to wait about half and hour in line. The church was really interesting, one of the weirdest churches I have ever seen, definitely worth the wait.

The outside, so much going on

Jesus on the cross, does he remind anyone else of that guy they suggest you make on the back of your cheese string?

The ceiling inside, very cool

The inside, the pillars are supposed to give the feel of trees in a forest

Dave and I

Next we climbed a giant hill to get to Parc Güell, an outdoor park and garden scattered with buildings, bridges, stairs, and other interesting architecture. This park was also designed by Antoni Gaudi and has the same sort of weird and interesting architecture throughout it. It was a really cool park and well worth the climb up mount Everest to get to it. We enjoyed a few sandwiches for lunch as we wandered and enjoyed the sites here.

The entrance 

Very interesting architecture 

Hot and sweaty, but worth the climb for the beautiful views of the city

On our way back from Parc Güell we made a quick stop at Barcelona Cathedral. This was a beautiful cathedral and it completed our morning site seeing tour. Barcelona has beautiful architecture and I look forward to making another trip there in the future so I can explore some of the other sites.

Next on the agenda was the relaxing part of the trip. We stop off at the hotel to change and headed down to Barceloneta Beach where we sunbathed, relaxed and swam. The salt water at this beach made it so easy to float in the water. It was so relaxing to lay back in the water and float away. Dave and I agreed that we could have stayed in that water all day. We enjoyed some sangria and a few beers on the beach and then called it a day. Next visit I'd like to devout more time to living the beach life.

The beach

Finally, a use for my ridiculously large sun hat

That night we had grand plans to head out on the town since the metro runs all night on Saturdays. However, I think I got a bit too much sun and I had a headache I couldn't shake (damn my pale Irish skin and its sun hating ways!), so we ended up relaxing in the hotel with plans to get a good sleep and continue to explore for our last day on Sunday. Next time I plan to make use of your all night metro though, so watch out Barcelona! Watch out!

Sunday we had a bit of a sleep in, how Spanish of us, and then heading out in search of Tapas (obviously my main reason for going to Barcelona...delicious food). We went to a tapas place I had read good reviews for on Trip Advisor called Ciudad Condal and it did not disappoint. The tapas were delicious and we had our fill. We enjoyed them with a nice lemony Spanish beer, that was perfect for a hot summer day. Tapas are awesome for someone like me who can never make a decision, because you get to pick tiny tastes of everything. It's awesome. All the tiny bites really do add up and I left feeling full and happy that I had finally tried tapas in Spain!

Look at me, I'm awful...grabbing my fork before Dave can even get a picture of the delicious Patatas Bravas (crispy potatoes in a spicy sauce)

Tiny green peppers in salt, mini burgers, and one of our favourite plates asparagus and delicious, delicious mushrooms

Ham and chicken croquettes

Calamari with lemon, a bit chewy, but still yummy

Crispy camembert with raspberry sauce, mini hotdogs (not exactly spanish, but we couldn't resist)

We ended our trip with a walk down La Rambla, a busy street in the centre of Barcelona full of vendors, street performers, and tourists. It was neat to walk down, but it was quite busy. At the end of La Rambla we were back at the waterfront so we wandered around the boardwalk and enjoyed an ice cream looking over the water. The water was full of jelly fish, it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I had never before seen a real jelly fish and they were so beautiful and graceful in the water, too bad they sting! But they are certainly pretty to look at. We heading back to the hotel with enough time to pick up our bags and head to our meeting place for our ride. It was a fast trip to Barcelona but we fit a lot in and we had a lot of fun. Next time I plan on adding a bit more relaxing on the beach to our trip and a bit more sangria...oh and paella.  We will definitely have to plan a next visit soon!

Beautiful jellyfish...just one of many!

I could get used to palm trees

Until next time...
Au revoir