Barcelona

It has been a long, long winter here in the north of England.

The 18 or so hours of daylight we enjoyed last summer quickly shortened, and by mid-December we had less than 7 hours of daylight each day. We have had record cold, and there have been very few days without some type of precipitation: here on the coast it's been mainly rain. By February
Scott and I were longing for some brighter days and warmer weather, so we took a long weekend and traveled to Spain's second largest city, Barcelona.

Razor Clams
We both tried them and I have to say, they were pretty good!

Full of beautiful buildings, fountains, beaches, and friendly people, we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Our first night in town we booked into a wine and tapas tour. We met our guide, Andrew, at the designated time and place and set off at about 6:30 in the evening. We walked through several neighborhoods, tried all sorts of wonderful food and wine, and learned a lot about the history of Barcelona.

During the course of our evening we stopped at 6 different places, including a sweet shop and an absinthe bar. Our last stop was a great tapas bar in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, where we sipped Cava and "people watched". Finally, at about 3:00 in the morning, tired, but definitely not hungry, we settled into a cab and headed back to our hotel. What a great experience!

Wine and Tapas Tour

Saturday morning we set out to visit Barcelona's most famous architectural attraction: La Sagrada Familia. If you have been following our adventure, then we know what you are thinking because we were thinking it too. "Oh no, not another cathedral!" Friends and family told us this cathedral is different and that we just "had" to see it, so we did. They were right. La Sagrada Familia is just amazing. Designed by Antonio Gaudi, this cathedral has been under construction for over 100 years, and it's not finished yet. Antonio Gaudi designed many buildings in Barcelona and his architectural style is quite unique. More on this on our next blog post!

After leaving La Sagrada Familia we wandered through some of the streets of Barcelona heading towards the Picasso Museum. We passed a complex that looked as if it housed an old stadium of some sort. We finally found the entrance and Scott and I pooled our limited knowledge of Spanish and figured out that this was an old arena used for bullfights. For a few Euros, we could go inside and look around. I was quite surprised at how small the bull fighting ring was, and how close the spectators could be to the ring. We walked through a museum which included photographs of matadors as well as exhibits of matador costumes, and a few stuffed bull's heads. We left the bull fighting arena happy to know that sport is illegal now in Spain.

This is how the bull fighting arena looked in days gone by.

This is the inside of the arena.

We eventually found the Picasso Museum, which we enjoyed. We also tried a Flamenco Show and a Spanish Guitar Concert. We found out that traditional Flamenco Dancing was a typical art form of the areas of Spain around Madrid but was generally not typical for the people of Catalonia. The Spanish Guitar Concert was really great!

Las Ramblas is a long pedestrian mall in Barcelona. Lined with shops, restaurants, and hotels, it's a favourite with locals and tourists alike.

A market along Las Ramblas

A shop along Las Ramblas

There are one way streets on each side of the pedestrian mall. These bikes were parked in front of one of the shops.