Today we spent the day and evening exploring the city of Barcelona. We took a bus into the city from the campsite - a mere €3 for an hour's ride - and were dumped off in the centre of the city.
From there we hoped on the open topped city touring buses and circumnavigated the city. We jumped off at a few spots around the city for a better look at some sights.
Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia, the basillica designed by Antoni Gaudi. Started at the end of the 19th century it is not due for completion till the middle of this century. The inside was recently finished (it wasn't last time I was here in 2005) and so this time last year was consecrated by the Pope. This is one of the most magnificent and unusual churches I've ever seen. It's the icon of Barcelona and really amazing to look around. We wandered the interior and took the lift 65m up to the top of the completed towers for views across the city. Spectacular.
Next we hopped off the bus at the Park Guell where Gaudi lived. Guell was his main patron and this park one of his most impressive works.
The bus took us all around the city to the Neu Camp (which we couldn't look around as Barce had a home game), the Olympic Stadium and many other sights. We stopped off at the Spanish Village which was built for the 1929 exhibition taking example building styles from all regions of Spain. It's very quiet and there are loads of traders practising their crafts here. We watched a master glass blower making horses and cats and swans with amazing dexterity.
Then it was down to the port and the bottom of La Rambla, the main drag through the city. This was heaving with people, ice cream stands and stalls selling all sorts of Christmas goodies. It had a real vibe to it.
From there we dropped into the gothic quarter and had a wander around the cathedral and grabbed some tapas. Then back to La Rambla for a wander around a huge open air market and then some gofre (waffle with ice cream) and a sit down to watch the world go by.
Finally it was time to get the night bus home for a good sleep.
Barcelona: 8/10.
Sent from my ZX Spectrum.
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