Day 12, Saturday, 26 September 2009 – Today is Gaudi day, book six! We visit two of his places, the apartment block Palau Guell (Guell was one of his patrons) and tour one of the apartments. We loved this for the way he brought in light in the optimal way. We also go to the La Padrera which is a museum about his works and explains in detail how he tried to build in harmony with nature. He always thought about nature first and built stuff according to leaves, fish skeletons, nuts, etc. The most amazing thing about Gaudi is that he never made plans for his projects, only models. Makes you wonder how he got approval to build anything.
Palau Guell
He designed the tiles!
Casa Batillo was another of his houses that he designed that had a central lightwell. We did not however see the Familia Sagrada, his church masterpiece. Considering it won’t be finished for another 25 years it can wait!
Casa Batillo
Rooftop of Casa Batillo
After these sights we had lunch at a bar in the Leixample district, main, dessert and a beer for €7. We then decide to visit the Musee of Ceramic or the ceramics museum which is quite beautiful and shows a timeline of Spanish mosaics. It is housed in the old Royal Palace, exquisite building once again with its pots of geraniums planted around the fountain at the front. So simple but yet so beautiful. We tour the palace and some of the rooms are lined with leather walls which have been painted like wallpaper, beautiful!! We get in with a discount because of the Barcelona Card.
Former Royal Palace, now Musee Ceramic
Grounds of the Palace Not able to make it look even better!
From there we decide that we will take up the free 1½ hour tour of the harbour offered by the Barcelona Card. This is conveniently right by the food and wine festival so we go back to our favourite stall and ask if we can buy two cold bottles of our favourite blanc de blanc. The woman says no, but she will agree to one, see what happens when you ask with a smile?? We board the boat and get the last two seats on the outside deck. The weather is superb and we settle in with our wine and a hot dog that we bought just outside the entry. Great tour of the harbour and we get out to the ocean which is very breezy! Go up the coast to where the beaches are and we see the modern day Barcelona, not like where we are staying or visiting.
Upon returning to the harbour, we depart the boat and walk across the street to the Christopher Columbus monument which has a lift which takes us to the top and to the viewing platform. Free entry courtesy of the Barcelona Card. I have calculated that just doing the things that we have done we have paid for the card plus had all out use of the metro for three days! The night was starting to get dark and it was magical to see the lights of the city from above!
Area in the harbour where the Columbus Monument is. We didn’t get a picture of it in light as it was dark when we came down.
Once again we go to the light show and meet a really nice couple and their friend. The male speaks pretty good English so Mr Have a Chat (Howard) has a great time conversing with him and his girlfriend and their other female friend. Howard tells them that they should get married and it is pretty evident that they will, they seem very much in love having been together for 7 years. My notes indicate that we have seen a lot of dogs in Barcelona and we are grateful to be able to pet them as we are missing our girls, Bella and Millie, very much!
We head off to a bar and meet a cute lawyer from Madrid whose English is pretty good. Howard tells him we will be driving the rest of our trip to which he replies “you’re game”! (We wonder what he means by that but soon forget the comment, only to be reminded of it once we hit the road!!)
Day 13, Sunday, 27 September – On this day we decide we are going to go to Sitges the beach resort outside of Barcelona. It’s only a 30 minute trip by train and going there we have a couple playing pan flute and guitar in the train car, just magical really! We both remark how on the outskirts of Barcelona it looks as if people are living next to the train tracks and tending vegetable gardens. The city is very dirty as you approach and leave it. We both agree that laundry hanging from balconies in the old city has a certain charm but hanging from modern day apartments it just looks tacky.
Sitges is a very nice resort town and has houses on proper blocks of land. There is an old section and a new section and both are stunning! I would imagine that this is where rich Barcelonians have their beach houses. We saw the funniest sight, two gay guys walking a black pig on a lead! Howard ran back to them and found out that it is their pet and her name is Lola! Of course it would, wouldn’t it??!!
We have lunch at a restaurant on the beach called Kansas and order the seafood paella (mine waiter assures me it is a good choice). It arrives and it is absolutely fantastic!! Still cooking in the pan and steaming hot, full of seafood and assorted vegetables, the smell wafting over the table. Howard eventually asks me if I want a paella pan – obviously he wants me to have one so that I can cook this for him!! The restaurant has china specially made for them but the name of the restaurant on the plate is Hansas. Wonder if this is a different interpretation of the name or a complete balls up???
Our first dish of paella! God it was good!! And yes, I did buy a pan on coming home!!
We wander the shops and streets and take the train back to Barca. Once back in the city we notice the large number of police near Plaza Espanya, surely tonight, the biggest night of the festival, is going to be huge (it is)!! We take the metro to wander thru Parc Guell. This is a housing estate that was designed by Gaudi and was to eventually have up to 60 houses. Only three were built here though and the remaining estate was never sold. It is quite magical but very hilly and it would have been a real feat to have even brought the building materials for the first three houses up here. It is a folly in the complete sense of the word for the 1920’s but would be very magical in today’s time.
Parc Guell
We visit the house where Gaudi lived – incredibly he didn’t design it!! We depart the parc via a side entrance and come across a group of five men, this is the only time that we have felt not safe. However we walk past them and back into a residential area. Parking is very tight in this area and we see a woman who has found a spot that is just smaller than her car. However, that is no deterrent as she backs in and gently moves back and forth nudging the cars in front and behind her so that they move out of the way and she can park! It was quite hilarious, Howard commented that there would be no way he would ever buy a new car in this city!
We go back to the hotel for a siesta (we are getting into this siesta thing!) and get up to have dinner at the local bar where we had dinner a few nights earlier. It is packed and I have to wait in line for about 15 mins just to get a sausage and a beer for each of us! No fries tonight, just too many people.
We head off to Parc Montjuic for one last night, tonight is the fireworks display. There must be about 10,000 people, maybe more, lining the streets (a guy on tripadvisor tells me that it was more like 200,000)! We push our way forward until we can’t get any further and hear the Freddie Mercury song “Barcelona” coming thru the sound system. PERFECT!! We open our last bottle of wine in Barca and feel the festivities of the people with the fireworks! At one point many people bring out sparklers and light them in unison, what a sight it was to see them all held up in the air!! The fireworks last about one hour, just incredible!! Happy crowd of people, no violence, respectful – a lovely atmosphere. A great night for our last one in Barca!
Raegan5's Blog 
It all sounds so amazing and the more I read, the more I want to go and see it all too!
I had serious travel depression when I got home, that’s how fabulous it was!!