Monday, May 13, 2013

Barcelona: Part 1


The last weekend of April I took my last major trip before my parents come to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we picked the one weekend that it was rainy in Barcelona. It was pouring Thursday evening when we arrived so we just ran to the grocery store for supper and then spent the rest of the night in the hostel.

Friday we decided to take a free Old City tour. Here are the highlights of our tour:

Santa Maria del Pi - This rose window is one of the biggest in Europe
Our tour guide explained the process to make designs like this on a building.
First, you cover it with the white plaster, then with the red plaster.
Then, the design is carved into the plaster.
This is the flag of those who want Cataluña to be an independent country.
The flags of Cataluña, Spain, and Barcelona
This is a sculpture made to represent the traditional Barcelona 'Human Towers.'
Human Tower   Source
This is in the courtyard of the Cathedral in Barcelona.
The Cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona.
13 geese are kept there to represent the 13 tortures she suffered at the age of 13.
Remains of Temple of Augustus, a Roman temple
Those stairs apparently were featured in paintings of Ferdinand and Isabella
receiving Columbus, but it was not actually where they met him.
After the tour, we sat by the pier and ate lunch.


That afternoon, we took advantage of it not raining and went to Parc Güell. Parc Güell was designed by Gaudí  and was originally going to be a park full of houses of the wealthy people of Barcelona. But, only three people ended up building houses there: Gaudí, Güell, and their lawyer friend. Parc Güell reminds me of Candy Land.




These are two of the houses.
The famous mosaic salamander

To finish the night, we went to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc fountain show with music and lights. At the beginning it was still pretty light out, but as it got darker and you could see the different colored lights better, it was cooler.





No comments:

Post a Comment