Barcelona

After working so hard on our Spanish, and getting some good practice in Madrid, we come to Barcelona and ….. everyone is speaking in Catalan! Our apartment is in a good neighborhood (with a great elevator) but not very comfortable or well equipped. Also, I got bronchitis, which slowed me down a bit. Nevertheless, we saw some gorgeous things in Barcelona, and that made it worthwhile.

Two highlights of Barcelona were the Casa Batilló and the Royal Shipyard. Gaudi’s architectural masterpiece was thrilling to see. We’d been to the Sagrada Familia Cathedral before, so since the lines were incredibly long, we decided to skip it this time. But the Casa Batilló was amazing.

The Museu Marítim was housed in the sheds of the Royal Shipyard. These shipyards were huge and the first to be enclosed indoors, thus creating Spain’s gigantic armada which conquered so much of the world. The centerpiece was an enormous ship, which was propelled by sail and galley slaves.
(a model of the whole ship with oars)
		We also took a harbor cruise. That’s a big mall we’re looking at.

We to a side trip to the town of Sitges. It is on the ocean and purported to be the largest Gay Resort in Europe. We enjoyed our trip, but it showed no signs of being gay in January.

Back in Barcelona there was an amazing light show on the front of a building

with dozens of beautiful images projected n the building.

The primary reason to go to Barcelona, in my opinion,

is the glorious Architecture and Art.

We went to several museums and exhibits and this button will take you to

many works of Art that we saw (although some places wouldn’t allow photos)

Miro Museum

Barcelona Art

Go to the Alicante / Murcia / Almeria / Cartagena page

Go to the SPAIN homepage