Barcelona was our final stop on this "sprint through Spain" trip. Gaudi, copious amounts of museums, paella, copious amounts of wine, flamenco, the Olympic Park and copious amounts of COVID tests were all on the agenda.Our flight from Mallorca landed in Barcelona right around noon. We were able to check in with our hotel, drop our luggage and start exploring within the hour. Our hotel was just up the street from several of Antoni Gaudí's famous buildings so we decided that would be our first activity. La Pedrera - Casa Milà and Casa Batlló Works of art! It was really special to see these buildings up close. Because of the trees, it was hard to get a picture of the whole facade but the tile play and how Gaudí shaped the stone on Casa Batlló is so fun. Both Casa Milà and Casa Batlló allow tours but we had reservations to see Sagrada and needed to make our way across town. A big regret not touring the inside. La Sagrada Familia. If I had one word to describe this church, I'd say overwhelming. But in the best possible way. There is a story and a reason behind every single piece of this church. Each of the three specific facades of La Sagrada Familia tell a story of Christ's life, the stain glass, the carvings, the pillars, seriously, Gaudí had a reason for all of it. We toured the Passion tower and the views from the top were dizzying. Going back down the spiral staircase was also no easy feat. If I remember correctly, our ticket allowed for a specific window of time before we needed to exit. We spent every second we could taking in Sagrada Familia before heading to our final Gaudí experience, Park Güell. Park Güell was lovely. The weather was just right to walk around and enjoy the Austria gardens and the aqueduct. We found the Mosaic Terrace and spent a solid hour sitting there talking and people watching. The park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site so you need a ticket to enter; plan accordingly because when we went, you couldn't buy day of tickets. Speaking of World Heritage sites, Palau de la Mùsica Catalana was also declared one and we had the privilege to tour the music hall while in Barcelona. Chase was very sweet and captured several moments of me freaking out over all the classical music tributes around the space. It was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner who used Catalan modernism so it feels incredibly similar to all the other important architecture in Barcelona. We loved this building and couldn't recommend it more, especially to fellow classical music nerds. One of our mornings in the city, we went up to Montjuïc to see the Olympic park and plaza. We also toured the Montjuïc castle. We were hoping to do a museum but it was closed the day we were in the neighborhood. Montjuïc was pretty but really not necessary unless you're seeing a concert of football game. It's a lot of hills and a ton of walking from one area to the next. We did stop for previously mentioned copious amounts of Paella. Martinez Restaurant was on the mountain had amazing views, a great cocktail list and some solid food. The service was unorganized and we're gonna blame post-COVID for that. Other things we did besides endulge in lots of yummy food and wine, we wondered through the Gothic Quarter, we also saw another Flamenco show (if you're going to Madrid, see a show there instead). We visited the Picasso museum, which was curated so well! They really told the story of Picasso’s life and work. We dined at the one star Michelin restaurant, Hofmann and then made a special metro ride over to their pastry shop to get a mascarpone filled croissant... Oh my goodness. What a massive, sprawling city full of so many wonderful things to see and do. This was our first trip post-COVID, in fact we still needed COVID tests to come home and about a month after this trip, the U.S. ended that travel restriction. After a three year hiatus from international travel, we couldn't have picked a better country to reignite our love of wandering.
Until Next Time, C + D
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