Barcelona, Spain

I flew back from Tel Aviv to Munich on Monday evening after my day spent in Jaffa.  I didn't arrive until after 10 pm, so I immediately took a cab to my pre-booked hotel room near the airport.  Maybe 4-5 miles from the airport and about 22 Euro in price.  Ugh. I wish I had thought to take an Uber! 

Listen, you can't beat a super cheap but brand new Ibis!  Look at this nice room that I've already destroyed!  I need nothing else!

After a great night sleep at the Ibis, I went back to my car and switched out some clothing.  (Hello there, Croco!)  I think I kind of know what it's like to be a rock star, now....

Oh my gosh you guys!  My Lufthansa plane is called the Garmisch Partenkirchen!  One of my favorite cities in Germany!  It's a sign this is going to be a good flight!

Why hello there, Alps.  Looking at you from 38,000 feet never gets old.

How pretty is my Instagrammed picture of Barcelona!?  Please note the W hotel on the right side of the picture.  It's shaped like a sailboat and we got to stay there for two nights!!!

NOT what you want to see upon landing ha ha.  (OK, I'm pretty sure it was the airport fire department doing a controlled burn, but still!)

I took the el cheapo bus (the Aerobus) from the airport to the Placa Catalunya, which is located at the north end of La Rambla.  It cost 5,90 Euro which is about a sixth of the price of a cab.  They show up every 5 minutes, and if you're staying near La Rambla, you can walk from the Placa Catalunya.  Our first hotel was Le Meridien along La Rambla, and it was fabulous.  Hope and Lisa had an incredible suite.  Awwww, thanks Lisa!!!!!

OK I have just ONE gripe about Le Meridien in general.  I swung by my room to drop my stuff off before heading up to see Lisa and Hope on the floor above me.  Seriously.  If there's two things I hate in this world, it's cilantro and lime.  No chance in hades that I'm using these products!

After my quick pit stop, I went up to the suite which afforded me (!!!) views like this. 

Hope and Lisa had been sightseeing ALL DAY and were exhausted, so we pretty much just hung out in the suite and ordered room service snacks and drinks for the afternoon.  This seagull stole some of our snacks!

This is actually a mirror, looking back up at the stairwell from the ground floor of the Le Meridien.  It made for a pretty cool photo!

Dinner was just the three of us as Ayala wasn't scheduled to land until the next day.  Me, my Big and my Grand Big!  The whole fam together again!

After a good night sleep (seriously... the beds at Le Meridien are insanely good). I went out the next morning in search of some much needed coffee.  I strolled along Las Ramblas and it was still relatively quiet.

I love this umbrella building!  So much fun!

OK, it's a two way tie between the above building and this one for favorite building on La Rambla.

Coffee has been obtained... I then went back up on the balcony to sun myself while Hope and Lisa finished getting ready.

Spanish coffee = infinitely better than Israeli coffee.  We waited up on the balcony for Ayala's incredibly early flight from Tel Aviv to arrive.

Once she arrived, it was already late in the morning, but we started our stroll into the Gothic district.  Barcelona to me will always be an incredible place for architecture.  In fact, I'm gonna annoy you with pictures of all of the buildings that I think are beautiful!

The Torres Romanes (or the Roman Walls).  These walls date back to the 3rd/4th century.  Ok, maybe not as old as some of the things I saw in Israel, but still incredible nonetheless.  These used to be the walls of the old city of Barcino.

Sometimes you just scratch your head.  I title this one, "Man with a cut on his leg and a dog with a donut in his mouth."  I can't find anything out about this statue.  I'm sure it's a saint or a royal of some sort, but I just can't find anything.

We were strolling down Carrer del Bisbe, when we saw a church with a cloister courtyard.  Turns out it's the Cathedral of Barcelona (just from another entrance).  The courtyard was beautiful and had lots of loud, squawking geese!

Really pretty coy pond at the cloister garden.

I really liked this example of Jesus on the cross.  The skinned knees detail was really good. 

After we left the Cathedral cloister, we made our way toward the Barcelona City Hall when I spotted this. This was as close as I got to creepy baby doll heads in Barcelona!

Still one of my favorite Barcelona stories...  the Bishops of Barcelona didn't want to walk outside when it was cold/hot/rainy/pretty much any type of weather, so this bridge was built in 1928 to connect the House of Canons with the Palau de la Generalitat.

Barcelona City Hall in the Placa de Sant Jaume.

Across the Placa de Sant Jaume is the offices of the President of the Catalonian government.

I love the Gothic Quarter for all of it's history.  Because not far from the Placa de Sant Jaume is the Temple of Augustus.  I went here before but I didn't have a wide zoom lens back then!   It dates back to the first century BC and is where the Emperor Augustus worshipped.  (Although worshipping only took place outside).

I liked this pedestal that was dedicated to Quintus Calpurnius Flavus in the late first century AD.  When the forum ceased being a forum, the pedestal was used for other things, including a game cube!  One of the sides was used for board games!

We made our way back to the Placa de Sant Jaume... time for a group selfie now that Ayala has joined us!

All I could think of when I saw this piece of art was Joan Crawford/Faye Dunaway in Mommy Dearest.

We've been walking for 15 minutes, you think it's time to stop for some tapas and some sangria, right?  Ok... time to stop at the Placa Reial. 

Then Hope wanted to do a little shopping, so we walked through Barcelona in search of a Mango outlet.  Seriously, the architecture was so pretty here, we just decided to stop for another drink while Hope went shopping!!!!

After our second happy hour of the day, we decided to actually go see something, so we trekked over to Casa Batllo.  On the way there, I was taking pictures of Ayala taking pictures of doors!

About this building... this is the building Todd and I stayed in when we were here in 2010!  Pretty cool!

Even though most buildings were not designed by Gaudi, you definitely get the feel that he's influenced the architecture here.

More beautiful architecture along Gran Via.

This building was right next to the building above on the Gran Via.

I always liked the intersection of the Gran Via with the Passeig de Gracia.

I mean, Casa Batllo (right) is super cool but look how awesome the building next to it is, too! All the shapes and colors!

Welcome to Casa Batllo, one of Gaudi's most well known buildings!  Now... you know from my previous visits to Barcelona that I'm not a fan of Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia.  But I really do enjoy his work outside of the massive church!  It's fun and funky and full of symbolism.  Gaudi loved the bone theme, as you can see in the picture above.  The little window balconies appear like little skulls. He liked curves and details that followed things in nature... and he even once said, "originality consists of going back to the origins."

This place ain't cheap though!  23.50 Euro to get in!  WHAT!?  I'm not even sure that it's worth that price.  It's a beautiful residence but that price is certainly steep.  If I spent that much money, you're gonna see EVERY DARN PICTURE I TOOK HERE!!! (Just kidding!)

The price comes with an audioguide though, and begins on the Noble floor, which was the residence of the Batllo family. It was built between 1904-1906 and they lived here until the 1950s.  Mushroom shaped furnaces are cool!

I have to say- the audio guide was pretty cool.  It included a little smart phone type app that, if you held the device in front of something, it showed you what it looked like during the days that the Batllo family lived there.

Casa Batllo had some of the most beautiful ceiling work and chandeliers that I have ever seen. This one was simple and colorful!

This one looked like golden sunshine!

After you go through some of the main rooms, you can take a peek out on the back patio at some of the colorful tilework.

Closeup of the tile work.  It's just so beautiful!

Straight lines are hard to come by in any piece of Gaudi's work.  As much as I love this, I keep thinking this is wasted space.  Like what kind of furniture could you put against this wall!?

Next you get to take the grand staircase up to the roof.   The tile work near the bottom of the stairwell is mostly white and very light blue, but it becomes a darker blue as you head upstairs. This is so that the light is distributed more evenly.

Here's a shot straight up (the stairwell is actually behind me) where you can get a good feel for the tile work.

The bottom of the actual stairwell.  I almost think this looks like a part of a face.  A big eyeball, a mustache, and a mouth.  But that's just my interpretation!

Gaudi was a big fan of the sea.  Most of the curves you see in this home represent the rolling waves.  He also used this wavy glass to give the impression that you were under water!

 

Oddly shaped interior window.

As you reach the attic, you notice the ceiling arches that makes you feel like you're walking under a set of ribs.

The attic was used for a lot of the washing, which they still have set up for you to get a feel for how that might have looked.  Notice the curved ceiling.  Not even the attic was exempt!

Another "rib" hallway.  I wouldn't mind having this as a walk in closet!  You could put up some bars under the shelving on each side and voila!

The next stop is the roof.  WOW.  It's one of the highlights of the house.  The colorful tile work is really awesome.

The roof includes what appears to be the spine of a large animal, perhaps a dragon (Perhaps this is Drogon? I kid.... I doubt Gaudi knew much about Game of Thrones!).  The tile work is spectacular!

Geez you guys.  It's been like, 2 whole hours since we've had a drink.  Let's go to the top of the Hotel Royal Passeig de Gracia for some drinks.  And a serious view!  Hello there, La Sagrada Familia!

The first several attempts at this photo were ultimate failures in that I blocked Ayala completely out of it.  Hence the finger.

To show you how far we walked (ha!) from Casa Batllo which is directly in the middle.

I asked for a bourbon and Coke Zero and I got about 5 shots of bourbon and one Coke Zero. Night night, termite.

La Sagrada Familia is always under construction.  It's not supposed to be done until about 2028, but don't hold your breath.

After happy hour (part 3), we decided to head over to El Nacional for some dinner.  But on the road that leads to El Nacional, there is a SUPER COOL little shop that I NEED to visit next time I'm in Barcelona!  It's called La Basilica Galeria and it's super funky. It pretty much sells a ton of things I can't afford, like perfume, jewelry and art, but the space is super neato.  I met this fella right outside!

We stopped at the first restaurant in El Nacional, La Braseria.  Great food here!  Three of us had "oven baked whole chickens" ha ha!

Walking back after dinner, you can see Casa Batllo all lit up at night.

The third day in Barcelona found us very tired... so we decided to do the hop on hop off bus, which I really like in Barcelona, because Barcelona is VERY hilly and VERY spread out. We picked up the tour at the Placa Catalunya.

We passed by the tallest building in Barcelona too!  (Tallest!)

This fella is known as the Fish.  He's super shiny at certain parts of the day.

The Gherkin (Torre Agbar) is growing on me. Mainly because I like the colors.  It looks really pretty at night too, all lit up. Otherwise, it's not the worlds most beautiful building. 

Signs of spring in Barcelona.

Well, at least one of my girls noticed I was taking a group selfie on the bus!

As we were heading up toward Parc Guell, we passed the Monumental Bullring of Barcelona.  It's no longer used for bullfighting as that has been outlawed in Spain.

After we hopped off at the Parc Guell stop, we had to walk a bit because the roads up by the park are too steep and narrow for buses. I noticed this cute replacement tile on the ground... a little car!

Hope, Ayala and I went up to Parc Guell, only to be told there weren't any slots left and that we would have to come back the next day.  But parts of the park are outside of the area where you needed a ticket, so we decided to explore a bit before we left to meet Lisa by the bus stop.

More rib like structures by our friend Gaudi.

Ummmmm, are these rocks going to fall on me?!? 

We decided to "hop" back on the bus for the rest of the tour (or at least part of it).  I'm super glad we got a stop light near La Rotunda (or La Torre Andreu), because this Adolf Ruiz I Casamitjana work was stunning.

Sants Gervasi I Protasi. It was only built between 1942-1962 but it was really pretty too!  I mean, is there anything in Barcelona that isn't super beautiful?!

We didn't go into Gaudi's Casa Mila (or La Pedrera), but going by it was good enough.  Not quite as colorful as Casa Batllo, but still fun with it's curved lines and random roof statues. It looks pretty neat inside but it's 34 Euros!!!!

Our bus took us down the Gran Via, right by this little restaurant that Todd and I used to frequent when we stayed here before, Ciudad (Ciutat) Comtal.  They had the best cheese and pineapple tapas that I've ever eaten!

And this is the bed and breakfast Todd and I stayed at years ago, Barcino 147.

In an attempt to make our way back to the port area, we went by the Arc de Triomf, which was built for the 1888 World's Fair.

Finally back down by the port area, we see my nemesis, the Christopher Columbus statue.  Recall the last time I was there I nearly had a panic attack because the entire tower was swaying in the wind when I was at the top. No thanks!

Art work and palm trees at the World Trade Center.

Wait, you want me to ride on THAT!?!

Then the first stop MUST be a bar.  Because I'm not getting on one of those without alcohol.  This bar will certainly do.  It was about halfway up to Montjuic, and had spectacular views!

Not a bad view at all, but look at that haze. Ewww!

As soon as Ayala saw all of the people crammed in there, she immediately said NO WAY. 

All right, we'll just go without her!  Apparently her claustrophobia is more intense than my acrophobia.  I've had a couple of drinks, so let's go!

I didn't get a chance to go to Montjuic this time (I went back in 2010, so that was ok) but it sure looked pretty from the cable car under the bright sunshine.

"Did we just leave Ayala alone to drink on top of a mountain?"  Yes.  Yes we did.

We spent the first couple of nights at the Le Meridien on La Rambla, but decided for the last two nights, we would move over to the W.  With Lisa's points. YES PLEASE.  I was super excited to move to the iconic W that's shaped like a sailboat!  Now I am normally someone who spends under $100 for a night anywhere (and that usually is for four people).  So I'm not sure Lisa understands how grateful I am at having spent this entire week in luxury hotels!!!

Next time we'll have to come in the summer so we can get in some beach time!

Once you get off the cable car, it's quite a hike back to La Rambla. It was about 2.5 kilometers and about 30 minutes, but that really helped us get more steps on our fitness apps!

And of course, we couldn't help but admire the biggest yacht in the world (by volume), the Dilbar.  It's only worth about $600 million!

I could not figure out what this was from behind.  At first it made me a little grumpy but then when I walked past him and saw his cute face, this little lobby made me so happy!  His name is Gambrinus.  He used to represent the Gambrinus restaurant, but when that closed, the city had him restored and put here on the promenade at Port Vell!

Finally back on Las Ramblas and it was a bit more packed!

Meanwhile, since we left Ayala on top of a mountain to drink, Hope, Lisa and I decided to check out the hot tub at the roof spa.  But it wasn't working!  The water wasn't bad but there weren't any bubbles and the lady working there couldn't get it to work (we think she could but she just didn't want to).  Hope is telling me that she is freezing ha ha.

Finally Ayala joined us again for guess what.... more drinks.  (And some dinner!)  This is me saying, "This thing is a piece of cake. I do this all the time because this is what we drink in Germany!" Ein Maß, bitte!

No more Maß for me.  Instead, limoncello shots in ice shot glasses!  Brrrr!

Yiiiiiikes. (You can see I'm still working on my Maß!!)

This dinner may or may not have led to a Latin/Salsa dance party in the hotel suite.

We also struggled to get out of bed in the morning, but we absolutely had to be at La Sagrada Familia by 8:30.  Of course, no one else was there for the tour, so we had to wait, and that made us totally miss the free "before hours" visit you get to do with this specific tour company we booked with.  Meanwhile, I keep hoping someone removes the Christmas tree from La Sagrada Famila, but I guess I'll have to keep hoping on that one.

Maybe they could do away with the random towers of fruit, also.  Again, please don't think that I don't love Gaudi. I just think this is a bit much for a church!  His work has a place, but the House of the Lord isn't necessarily that place!

La Sagrada Familia is a lot more completed than the last time I was here over 6 years ago. When I was here before, you couldn't walk around the inside very much.  Now it was much more open, and most of (but not all) of the stained glass has been put in. 

And the stained glass is amazing!!  (Mostly) warm colors on one side of the church and (mostly) cool colors on the other side of the church.

The inside of La Sagrada Familia is MUCH more appealing to me than the outside.  In fact, I kind of loved it.  The columns (in pink sandstone) are designed to look like trees.  You can tell they change stone type as they closer to the tops of the trees. 

I swear I have no filters on this picture.  This is actually how it looked inside of the church with the light streaming in through the multi colored stained glass!

Everywhere you turned, there was stained glass.  It was on all sides of the church, but the largest amounts were on the southeast and northwest sides so that the light that came in would shine through one side of the church in the morning sun, and the other side in the setting sun.

Of course, La Sagrada Familia isn't done yet!  Notice here they have yet to install all of the stained glass!

Back out under the Nativity Façade.  Admittedly, it's my favorite of the facades.  (If I had to pick one).  Not for the silly Christmas tree (I know, I know... it's the Tree of Life, I GET IT!  They just didn't have to make it look so much like a Christmas tree!), but because there is just a LOT to discover on this façade.  You could sit here for hours and still find things to discover!

New since I was last here were the doors at the Nativity Façade.  These doors had been destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, so Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo designed these new doors.  And they were BEAUTIFUL!  See if you can zoom in and find the bugs in this section of the doorway.

 I spy a bee!  My daughter would have FREAKED if she had seen this!

Over on the Passion Façade, the doors look more like this.  You can see the words of the New Testament describing the Passion of Christ. Certain words stick out, physically and in color.

The Passion Façade is rough and harsh, with once again, Gaudi's use of columns that appear like bone structures.

Our tour guide at La Sagrada Familia just wasn't that good.  God love her, she was a nice gal, but her English wasn't very good and her descriptions even worse.  She repeated herself a lot.  I felt bad for her, but we decided to skip out on the rest of the tour and head back to Le Meridien to pack up and head to the W.  This was the view when you stepped off of the elevator on our floor... the 23rd floor!

 And THIS was my ROOM!!!!!  WHAT THE WHAT?!?  In the foreground is the bed and it faces the giant window.  We even had a little button we could push to close the blinds!! And we got turn down service! And free water!  (Seriously, it's the little things... but what this room really costs, we'd better get free water!)

And then we went next door to Lisa's suite.  What a view!  There's no other way to capture it than by panorama!  Absolutely stunning!  Lisa was a bit mad though because the room she had been promised (they even sent pictures of the view!) was one with more of a city view.  This will do, though!

I could stay here forever.  Seriously.  Forever.

The port is huge, and I love the cruise ship for scale.

The beautiful Montjuic in the sunset.

We didn't have any plans until later and we were all hungry so we of course ordered room service!  Including a whole pizza!

The hallways of the W were red. I mean REALLY red.  Notice the (also red) sunset in the window down the hall.

Barcelona by night before we went out for some culture!

Lisa had purchased some tickets for us to see a fantastic Spanish guitar player at the Church of Sant Jaume.

Pedro Javier Gonzalez.  He was excellent and the acoustics in the church were fantastic. 

Ayala and I had to get up kind of early (geez, we've GOT to stop doing this!) for our entrance into Parc Guell, which we had purchased a couple of days before at our failed attempt to get into the park.
 

Our first stop was the Hypostyle room.  Apparently Pedro Javier Gonzalez could have had his concert in here, because it's well known for it's fantastic acoustics.  And look at the ceiling tile work!  Oh Gaudi, you never cease to amaze me!



While the colorful sunshine tile work is impressive, you also must notice that the ENTIRE ceiling is actually tiled.  I love the pearlized white tile work that covers the rest of the ceiling.

I could have stared at this for hours.  Ok, maybe for like 15 minutes, but still!

I swear there were people here when we were here ha ha.  I love a picture where there's nobody in it though!  The Hypostyle room was probably my favorite.

On top of the Hypostyle room is the open aired "Greek theater" styled area, named so because concerts and plays could be held here while people could sit on the nearby terraces and watch.   It often goes by another name... the Nature Square.

View of Barcelona from the Nature Square. 

 Ayala and I decided we wanted to hike to the top.  We REALLY wanted to beat each other in steps today.

 I just love all of the shapes and angles Gaudi uses.  All in the rock! Twists and circles and stalactites and angled railings!

After we strolled around a bit, we went back down to the Dragon Stairway.  Perhaps they think he's a dragon, but we Floridians knew he was definitely a lizard!

While Ayala went into the gift shop to do a little shopping, I took some pictures.  This building reminded me of a birthday cake for some reason!

 Looking back toward the Dragon Stairway at Parc Guell.

More beautiful Gaudi tile work at Parc Guell.

Rock and tile work at the front entrance of Parc Guell.  I like the bay window, too!

Ayala said this was one of her favorite pictures of us.  Gee, thanks!

Right at the entrance, there have lots of mosaic tilework by Gaudi.  I love how they look like larger tiles that he just smashed and glued back together!  Sometimes they were put back together in the right order, sometimes not. But it works!

The Laundry Room Portico.  His columns are functional and pleasing to the eye at the same time.

We did a whole stop-motion thing of me running through The Laundry Room Portico.  It came out really cool!  I love how this area is designed to look like a giant wave.

We spent some time looking for the cliff near the top of the park that Todd and I visited when we were last here. I remembered the views were amazing, and I was right... they still are amazing!

Views of Barcelona and La Sagrada Familia through native trees.

There was some cool graffiti near the top of the park!  We got a good laugh out of this one, as Ayala and I are both mothers of daughters!

 We pondered at the top of Parc Guell what we should do.  Should we go up to Tibidabo?  Or should we just stroll around the Gothic Quarter?  We both agreed that strolling sounded more relaxing and we needed to get some lunch and drinks, stat. So we took the metro and this guy busted out some karaoke (he was looking for money of course) right there on the train, complete with microphone, speaker and all.  Reminded me of my days on Boston's Orange Line!

Todd and I haven't been finding a whole lot of creepy baby doll heads lately, which has been a bit disappointing.  However, the mannequins in this store totally creeped me out.  Why are here ears so low!? Why does she have two different arms/shoulders? 

I like strolling.  It really gives you a nice feel for the back street architecture.  So neat to think that these are actually places where people live!  I hope they know how lucky they are!

Pedestrian streets are definitely the best.  I love the little trees!  Sorry the pictures is kind of blurry. I'm really working on stopping when I take pictures instead of walking and taking pictures at the same time!

More pedestrian streets of Barcelona.

I had forgotten where the "Donald Trump heads" fountains were.  I was super happy when we passed them!  They kind of look like the President, no?  Just a bit.  Must be the hair.  These are the oldest fountains in all of Barcelona!

We ain't messing around.  We need Sangria, stat!  This little place in George Orwell plaza had one of the best Sangria's I've ever had.  Two of these *might* have gone down.

The tapas were pretty good too!  ALL WEEK, I have been quoting David "Big Papi" Ortiz from Saturday Night Live (but really formerly of the Boston Red Sox) in the skits where he talks about all of the food he's eating.  SO FUNNY.  Of course, we didn't eat any Mofongo because that's more of a Puerto Rican dish! But Patatas Bravas, Tortilla Espanola, Guacamole and Pan con Tomate were all said in our best Big Papi voices!  (Seriously, you have to look it up on YouTube now... it's so funny!)

I wasn't kidding... George Orwell Plaza!

 Now we have been in Barcelona for several days now and not ONCE have we had paella!  What!?  So dinner on our last evening all together was definitely a giant pan of paella.  Hope and I were due to leave the next day (although Lisa and Ayala had another day together).

 

Seriously, look at this paella!  And it was delicious!

At sunset, Hope went out and took this pretty picture of the harbor, which was right outside of the restaurant.

I just took this one right from my seat at the restaurant!  What a beautiful sunset!  No filter needed!

Remember the story about the suite that I told you?  That Lisa was a bit displeased that the views from the suite weren't exactly what she had been promised?  Well they certainly tried to make it up to her by sending macarons and champagne to the room!  (And before you ask, yes, Lisa and I have the same last name.  And no, we are not related!)  Lisa was so funny... she kept saying, "You guys, I feel really bad now!"  Ha!

Don't feel bad, I'm gonna enjoy every bit of this!  It isn't a bad way to end this trip AT ALL!  Cheers to a successful #LBP trip!  Can't wait to do it again with these awesome ladies! 

Until next time, Barcelona!