Ahh Barcelona! We stayed for four nights at a lovely student style residence with fast internet, shared kitchen, and a Metro station nearby. It was actually good to be away from the touristy areas in Barcelona, although we were right in the middle of the uh, funeralry district...
On the plus side there was an interesting (and free!) museum just down the road - Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres has the biggest collection of 19th & 20th century hearses in Europe. On display were opulent and splendidly ornate carriages and hearses. The museum was, fittingly, a bit creepy.. it is located at the basement of the municiple funeral services and we were the only people in the museum. (The staff actually only open the museum on request)
This white funerary carriage was apparently used for children and virgins.
Onto the main attraction in Barcelona... the Sagrada Familia! Approaching this thing was like.. WOWWW! Antoni Gaudi started building it in 1882, but to date it is not finished! It is a gigantic glorious cathedral, although in this photo it kinda looks like a satanic temple dripping with molten lava, rising from the gates of hell!
The elaborate details of the Nativity facade... up to 100 types of plants and animals were carved into the facade.
And some splendidly gory scenes in the facade... here, soldier killing babies...
The interior
We saw more of Antoni Gaudi's works.. this is the Casa Batlló.
and La Pedrera - an apartment block with cool sculptures at the top
beautiful impressionist ceilings inside La Pedrera.
I loved the surreal and organic styles of Gaudi's works. Joe's not too crazy about it - he likes his buildings square and functional. I think perhaps he'd prefer a communist apartment block?
After La Pedrera we fell right into a rip-off tourist trap! It was pouring down rain that day and we just headed for the first cafe we saw. The cafe hid their menuboard away from the entrance where you order. We ordered a sandwich, a bit of bread with some topping on it and two coffees...
which came to a ridiculous 22.50 Euros. (A meal like this should cost less than 10 Euros normally) They charged a ridiculous 8.50 for the bit of bread with toppings they call 'pizza'... and casually slapped on 1 euro per item extra for "service charge". The cafe had no shortage of victims pouring in to shelter from the rain. We talked to fellow victims also angered by their bill. We got off relatively lightly though.. thank goodness we didn't order beer.. they were 15 Euros a pop! Be warned! Do not go to La Baguetina Catalana - I found out later that this cafe is actually a franchaise... we see them popup fairly frequently near touristy places, the menu always out of sight. Ripping off tourists is easy as taking candy from babies, it seems.
Other interesting buildings of Barcelona... here's a building similar to London's Gerkin in shape, but much more colourful.
The view from the Palau Nacional on the hill of Montjuic ("Jewish Mountain")
We love photographing stone walls and the vegetations that grow on them.
And sculptures with nice butt
A statue of Christopher Columbus - America is that way, no?
We saw a protest... I think it was against narco-violence in Mexico? This was near La Rambla, the main, touristy boulevard in Barcelona, or pickpocket central. We were too worried about pickpockets to take many photos there.
On to Park Guell, also a Gaudi's work. It was a glorious sunny day after two days of rain, and the park was packed with tourists.
There are some charming gingerbread-like houses.
Beautiful stone columns and ceilings.
Some dudes playing guitar, quite well too.
Great views from the park.
View of the gloomy Castell de Montjuic. This castle was once used as a prison and torture centre during the Spanish Civil War.
Yeehar! Barcelona was fun and we didn't get pickpocketed!
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