July 01 Barcelona

July 01

Just arrived in Barcelona from Montreal a couple of hours before this picture. We arrived at about 07:30 am and were at our hotel by 09:30. Luckily Claude and Paulette's room was ready, so here we are on their balcony, thrilled to be back in Europe.

Bt 10:00 am, we were on our way to a famous Barcelona park named Park Guell. We discovered that the street leading to the park is a pedestrian street only, and a very steep climb. Luckily, the middle of the street is a series of escalators taking you up, while there are regular stairs on either side for going down. Pretty cool!

Here we are in the park.

Relaxing in the park.

These benches are decorated with small ceramic tiles. This park was designed by a famous Barcelona architect named Antonio Gaudi. He originally built it, between 1900 and 1914, as a housing complex. It was never used as such, but instead bacame a park. More on Gaudi later, as you can't visit Barcelona without becoming aware of his work.

Gaudi's style of architecture was very unique. Here are two of his buildings at the entrance to the park. He actually lived in Park Guell, and his home is still located there, where it is an be visited. He died in 1926, struck by a streetcar on a street in Barcelona.

Here is another Gaudi structure within the park.

By noon, we returned to the the hotel so that Darlene and I could check in to our room, and we took a break, as we were pretty tired from the overnight flight. By around 02:00, we were ready to go again, and we decided to head to the harbour. One of the first things you see is this big monument in honour of Christopher Columbus, as this is the location that he departed from in 1492 to eventually end up America.

This is what we think is a channel buoy in the harbour. Even the buoys are works of art!

This a street in Barcelona where we had dinner, just off the water.

But first, we stopped and had a beer, very hot day and it tasted great.

After dinner, we went to a neighborhood , just beyond the harbour called Barceloneta. We don't have pictures, because it was dark by then, but is was a very interesting part of the city. Full of small bars, restaurants, playgrounds with kids still out playing, locals sitting out having a bite or a drink and relaxing. One of our favourite moments in Barcelona.