Woke up at around 11 a.m., showered, then hit the city. The first thing Viv and I did was walk through the Gothic Quarter, which was a beautiful area. Very narrow streets were lined with ancient buildings, and filled with little shops and restaurants. It soon led us to the Ramblas, which was a rather touristy area, but nice anyway. We bought a few postcards, and I bought an ALF comic book and a T-shirt commemorating the upcoming 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.
We walked around more Gothic buildings and shops (Viv bought sunglasses as well) until we returned to our room to drop things off and make our way via Metro to the Temple de La Segrada Familia. It is a century-old gothicy cathedral designed by Gaudi that is noted by its continuous construction. Gaudi started building it in 1882, and it has yet to be completed.
(Pictured top is me at the temple. To the left is my admission ticket.) Since it is unfinished, there was a lot of construction going on while we were there, but it was still opened to the public. We climbed some steps to get to the top, but only made it part way.
After a look in the museum at the temple, we left to check out the site where the 1992 Olympiad is being constructed. To get there we had quite a climb up to the top of a hill where a Ceramic Museum sat. It gave us an incredible view of the city. We walked around here awhile before we came upon our destination. Though not impressive in and of itself, what made it worthwhile was knowing what was going to be there in a few years. We saw the shells of several large structures being built for the Olympic Games at the construction sites. (Third image above is of Viv outside one of the Olympic construction sites; fourth is of another construction site.) Hope they get this project finished faster than the one over at the Gaudi temple!
Next we walked on past the Miro building (closed) to the tram, which we rode and got another skyline view of Barcelona. The tram took us to the Castilla, and though it was rather cold it was definitely worth the trip. Here I got what could be an incredible photo of a sunset over Barcelona.
(Picture #4, above, is me at the Castilla, with the tram in the background. Sorry, no photo of the sunset, actually. More about that fiasco later.)After looking at all this castle had to offer, we walked down the road to the bottom and gradually made our way back to the room. After a short rest we left for dinner, and decided on a place that was way over our budget, but very nice and worth the extra expense. It was at Cosmos on the Ramblas that I (finally) had a steak, and Viv had Hake, all with soup, the trimmings, dessert, and a fine bottle of wine.
Our bill came to 5,600 pesetas (£23 or $38) Wow!We came back to our room a bit tipsy, broke, and very pleased to be spending the night in a city as beautiful as Barcelona.
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