Barcelona, Spain

We flew into Barcelona, Spain on Thursday and spent the day wandering around the downtown area, and up and down the fascinating sight that is the La Rambla (the main street that runs top to bottom and is home to the highest number of buskers we've ever seen).

Just one of the many costumed performers who spend their days on La Rambla, posing for pennies.


We made our way down to the port


Where the waters seemed to be overflowing with fish. No one was fishing (so it must be illegal), and the fish were massive!

At the end of La Rambla, and the entrance to the port, is this giant column

Christopher Columbus stands on top, pointing towards America.

Barcelona is a city briming with art (of every kind) and the port is included in this.

The port is also home to this tall ship

Mat enjoyed the tour.

The history of Barcelona (and Spain) should not be forgotten...and often can't. The holes in this wall were caused by a bomb set off during the Spanish Civil War.

Barcelona's Cathedral. Under construction, but the scaffolding gives you a glimpse of what it looks like.

Flags ontop of a govermnet building. Flags are tricky in Barcelona, since Barcelona is a city in Catalonia, an area considered to be separate from Spain. The Catalan flag is the one with the 4 red stripes on the yellow background.

Art, and all things arty, is also a really big thing in Barcelona. This is a gate for a government building.

Here a Picasso on the side of the building for the school of Architecture.

The roof on the Santa Caterina market. It's gorgeous (when you look at a picture), since you can't actually see it from outside.

A sculpture near the port.

The big artistic draw of Barcelona is the work of Antoni Gaudi (whom we've both become intrigued by). This lamp post, in Placa Real, is the first of Gaudi's work to be put on view in public.

These photos are of Casa Batllo

it looks like it's made of bone

and has very interesting balconies

The photos below show La Padrera (Casa Mila)

Also an interesting place, and also with a very large line-up. We didn't go inside, but we saw the pictures and both places looks amazing. I guess we'll have to return.

Gaudi's main work is the Sagrada Familia (the Church of the Sacred Family). Work on this church began in 1883. When Gaudi died in 1926, the church was still not complete. The Spanish Civil War put a damper on things as well, since Gaudi's workshop, and most of his sketches of the church, were destroyed. In fact, the church is still being built and they are not sure when it will be done (since it relies exclusively on private donations---and the ridiculous entrance fee). The newest date is sometime in 2010 (but we'll see).

The exterior

The interior is meant to look like trees, with the ceiling as the leaves.

Construction underway.

These line the roof of the building.

Not only did we participate in the artistic culture of Barcelona, but also the night culture. It's common to go to the bar from 10-1 and then the club from 1-6am. These people party hard. The main thing to do at the bar is drink Sangria and have Tapas (snacks). We decided to get all of this in a cooking class.

Our host, making Paella (Pie-eh-ah).

It is a Spanish rice, that includes vegetables and usually a lot of seafood.

The Sangria (red wine, with soda, sugar, liquer and fruit) went down a little too smoothly

Once cut off from the Sangria, we headed to another bar (with our new friends) and had the Harry Potter Shot. No idea how to make it, but it was good.

And they set it on fire.

Barcelona was beautiful. There are so many things to do, that I don't feel like we did any of it...I guess we'll have to return one day.