Spain has saved the best for last. We are now in Barcelona and are blown away by how amazing this place is. There are no adjectives that can truly do justice to a fitting description of what is without doubt one of the greatest cities in the world. You turn any corner and the only sound that is uttered from your lips is Wow! This place has the WOW Factor in spades.
There is just so much to take in it is a bit overwhelming. The city is a paradise of classic Spanish architecture but even the modern buildings are stunning in their uniqueness. There was so much we wanted to see we took the 2 day City Hop-on Hop-off bus tour and spent the entire day on the two routes just sitting there gobsmacked and sunburnt. After the full tour which started at 10am we finally got back to the campground at 8pm. We then decided on where we wanted to go back to the next day.
We started with Gaudi's garden - Parc Guell. This is an architectural wonderland. His unique style is wondrous to behold. A combination of organic and ceramic with a touch of surreal fantasy. This would have to be the archetype for every fantasy artist. One can imagine goblins and elves and even hobbits inhabiting Gaudi's vision in physical reality.
We headed next to the old quarter, a series of maze-like streets that run off the wide boulevard called La Rambla. The area runs from near the centre of town to harbour and was the original city that was inside the old Roman wall. The dominant building here is the Gothic Cathedral. The exterior is almost threatening with its narrow conical towers, thick muscular buttresses and glaring gargoyles. The front is open to a huge tree ringed plaza where on Sundays the locals dance in typical Catalan style to the accompaniment of a small orchestra that plays from the steps of the church. The rear however is dark, gloomy, towering and full of foreboding. The interior is quite spectacular. The stained glass windows are some of the best we have seen, while the gilt altars and shrines are overbearing and really quite ugly.
We wandered along the cool narrow streets that followed the contours of the old Roman walls until we reached the harbour. The harbour-side is massive. It combines the commercial port, the cruise ship terminal and the harbour leisure and entertainment precinct in one integrated complex. It has everything, a 24/7 shopping mall, conference and trade centre, the largest aquarium in Europe, outdoor plazas and boulevards lined with trees and cafes and a casino. Did I mention we just love this place.
No time to stop we're headed along Passeig de Colon to the Columbus monument and the trip up to Montjuic, the location of Barcelona Olympic site. Here on the hill overlooking the city there are the Miramar Gardens, the Montjuic Fortress, the Olympic complex, the National Arts Museum and the Poble Espanyol ( a exhibition of typical Spanish buildings from different regions) it was built for a World Fair in the early 20th Centruy and was supposed to be demolished afterwards but it was so well liked the city decided to keep it. Unfortunately we couldn't get to see it as it had been taken over for the Weekend by a sort of Spanish Big Gay Day Out kinda thingy. Lots of Djs with names like Ivano E Magination playing Doof Doof Music.
We walked around the hillside and visited the Olympic Stadium. The exterior is the original early 20th Century and very Romanesque while the interior is a counterpoint in concrete and steel. We crossed the road and wandered down through the park to the National Arts Museum that dominates the hill overlooking the western side of the city. From her you can look down over a wide panorama of the entire city. Steps lead down the hillside to the base and along a wide boulevard to Plaza Espanya. The entrance to the boulevard is marked by two huge towers and beyond the towers across the plaza is Arenas de Barcelona. This is the old Bull Ring that became too small so they built a new one on the other side of town. But this one was deemed so architecturally significant that they kept the original circular exterior facade. They supported the entire circular brickwork walls on a concrete plinth and raised the entire structure 20 feet. This allowed them to gut the rest of the bullring's interior and build a shopping mall inside. From the circular roof platform you get a spectacular view back down the boulevard with the magic fountain that cascades down the hillside in front of the Arts Museum.
We caught the bus from Plaza Espanya back to our little motorhome away from home and crashed. Well Margie has and I am just about to.
Tomorrow we take one last look around Barcelona then we head for the Pyrenees and Andorra. On the other side, in France, a 100 year old bike race and my brother await.
No comments:
Post a Comment