Got up late again, all this not eating till 11pm and being up till 1am is
telling on our overstuffed bodies! We did a room swap, this one is just big enough to
swing a cat. Just to stuff the bodies even more we had a really good Indian meal for
lunch down opposite the port, such a change from Tapas and pizzas which we seem to live on here. I
could never live in Spain as everything we have ordered since arriving here has
been cooked in fat of some sort, my mouth permanently feels like a deep fat
fryer.
We decided to take the open air Bus Turistic, to check out areas we may have
missed on our wanderings so far. It's a good fun thing to do and as in London
you can hop on and off as you please. We commenced at Port Vell, meaning old
port, part of Barcelona's harbour which has been revamped into a shopping
centre, Imax cinema, Aquarium and restaurants etc. The blue route took us next
to Port Olimpic. This is the new marina built in deference of the 1992 Olympic
games, 4kms of beach and holds the Gran Casino where you can spend an evening
losing all your holiday cash. Our next stop was outside the zoo where you can
visit the worlds only albino gorilla - now there's a thing!
We next saw the Pla de Palau in the Ribera district, this is where the Santa
Maria de Mar church and the Picasso museum are situated, the queue for the
museum was
a mile long, so we didn't wait. The bus drove on through the Barri Gotic area,
again we have walked through this, taking many photo's as we went. Placa de
Catalunya a huge square visited on out first evening was next where the
wonderful Millet's Palau de Musica Catalan is.
Onwards
to Passeig de Gracia where Gaudi's Casa Mila or La Pedrera is. This was the last
private building that Gaudi created as from 1914 he dedicated himself solely to
Sagrada Familla. It is a wonderful piece of architecture as you can see from the photos.
The walls, railings roof etc. are in the undulating curves typical of Gaudi. It is
like a rectangular polo mint with an outside on the inside too, the photo's may show
you what I mean. There are lots of amazing chimneys on the roof terrace, where we spent a good deal of
time, some in terracotta and some in tile mosaic, a group of three are made with
smashed up green glass bottles which look from a distance like army camouflage. The
whole house is incredible, I think Gaudi will always be my favourite architect. I love all his work, from the wondrous Sagrada Familla
to the little balconies, gates and door frames.
The next stop was the Sagrada Familla followed by
the Park Guell, so we stayed on the bus a bit longer. Casa Vicens was next
Gaudi's first commission, a beautiful house in brick and the blue and white tiles
that he used so much. We travelled on to the Diagonal which is full of designer
shops etc. we stopped here for a zumo naranja and a caffe solo each.
We finished
the blue bus route from here having done the red zone finishing at the diagonal. The
end of the blue trail brings us back to the Port where we decide since it's 10pm
again that we should eat. La Gavina's menu sounded good so we settled there and were not disappointed! Lobster soup and paella del mar for Andrew
and shrimp and mushroom stuffed potato and sole meuniere for me, a good rioja
and coffee, we are replete and happy bunnies.
Then the rain started - the
heavens well and truly opened, we were outside under the parasols as most people
were, in the end we gave up waiting for it to stop and made a run for the dry
hotel! Some wine, the diary and the bed.
