Barcelona, Spain

Our cruise took us to France for a few days to visit. We continue our cruise as we arrive in Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona

Our boat arrived on Sunday morning in Barcelona, Spain and we set off excited for what this city had to offer. We had heard so much about it and really wanted to spend as much time as we could here.

La Rambla

The cruise terminal was near the famous La Rambla Street. La Rambla is a kilometer long walking street filled with shops, art, artists, eateries etc. It’s really lively and it was great to enjoy the environment as you stroll through it.

One of the things we were hoping to visit was La Boqueria which is a famous and large food market with all sorts of meats, produce and other food items to browse, buy, try or eat! Unfortunately, because it was a Sunday the Market was closed to us today and so, while a little saddened we pressed on.

At the end of La Rambla street, it opens up into a large square named Placa de Catalunya. Its a fairly central spot in Barcelona where many streets connect and is surrounded by shopping centres.

Casa Mila & Casa Batllo

We started walking towards two Gaudi designed buildings a few blocks down. Antoni Gaudi is a famous Architect with several very unique buildings to his credit. I didn’t know very much about him, but after seeing his creations, I started looking into his other work and realized just how unique and beautiful his stuff was! There were very few straight lines or edges.

The first building we visited was Casa Batllo.  From the outside you already see it stand out from its neighbours.

A few blocks away on the same street was another Gaudi Masterpiece, Casa Mila.  It’s also known as “La Pedera” (Open Quarry) for its open rocky look. Because its on a street corner it stands out quite prominently and we easily identified it some distance away.  When you get up close you really start to admire the curvature and detail that is put into every “corner” of the building. Being one who has really enjoyed seeing architecture while travelling, I really enjoyed visiting these two buildings.

La Sagrada Familia

As impressed as we were with Casa Mila and Batlo, our next stop was Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece,  La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is an unfinished Church which Gaudi brought his gothic and “curvy” style to when he designed it. Sadly, it remains unfinished to this day for a variety of reasons: funding, wars, politics etc.

Again, from the outside this church is amazing even in its unfinished form. It is unlike any other place of worship I have ever visited and is truly unique. I have seen pictures of its interior and it looks insane! I truly would have loved to have gone inside, but sadly we didn’t get a chance to this time around (more on that later). But if you are ever in Barcelona, please please make this the top thing you visit.

La Paradeta

As we had been exploring for most of the day we thought it only fitting to take some time to have a meal together. We found a neat little seafood place nearby called La Paradeta. What they do is they lay out all the fresh seafood on ice in front of you, and you select what you want and how you want it done (within reason) and they’ll do it for you. You pay for your cooked food and enjoy!

We absolutely LOVED IT! Being seafood lovers we went to town on all the different selections and made multiple visits through the process until we didn’t have any more room in our tummies.

Sadly our time in Barcelona was limited. And I feel that I only had a small taste of what this city has to offer. Its days like this that reinforce the notion that I’m not a fan of “cruising”. We had a little more than half a day in this marvelous city and we had to cut out so much. Of all the things I regret, not exploring the Gui buildings more thoroughly is at the top of the list.

Though days like this also served to only whet my appetite and Barcelona is very high on my list of places to visit. I aim to take a trip to Spain and specifically Barcelona in the future and hopefully that trip will do this beautiful city more justice!

Back on the boat, as we sail towards Naples.