Barcelona
A city whose name conjures up idyllic preconceived ideas of everything great about Spain and the Spanish culture.
We headed there recently for one last mad city break long weekend from London. We were meeting up with Bella's parents who had been there all week. We flew out on Friday morning and needed to get up at 4am. We were home again around 1am on Sunday night/Monday morning. Fun. The effort was rewarded a few hours after the 4am start when we were waiting for the bus from the airport to Barcelona and we got ourselves a short, dark coffee and a pastry. The little things that make Europe great.
We spent 3 days in this city where you could easily spend a lifetime. I had chorizo three times in the first 12 hours of being there. The city bumps and jives. There are performers on every corner, from musos, to dancers to circus acts. The buildings drip with character and individuality. Something that often lacks in European cities. The city is busy but feels comfortable, apart from the continuous stream of tour groups that are toting around everywhere, blindly following someone with a sign.
Sure it has more gothic churches than you can poke a stick at, but they also embrace new buildings.
Somewhere along the line, someone decided that tile mosaics where cool. Barcelona have taken this and run a long way. Below is a picture of the Palau de Musica Catalan. I stole this one due to forgetting my camera. We watched a Spanish Guitarist do his thing on stage here one evening. The music was great but the building was something else. The whole ceiling was covered in tile mosaic and then the have this massive glass ceiling droplet. Statues poking out in places and then blending in with a mosaic. Beyond words and beyond photos.
The city has a different feel in architecture due to the Modernista movement and a guy named Gaudi. Taking it on a simpleton's level, he just made stuff look good and different. Including everything from a park (well a road through it)
to a apartment block
to a catherdral. The Sagrada Familia. He died during it's construction which is still very much in progress.
Both inside and out.
Barcelona. A very cool city that I would love to spend a year exploring, but 3 days will have to do at this stage.
The title of this entry is so named due to the fact that it is our last weekend getaway. We have two and a bit weeks of work left and we are then on a permanent weekend again. We are throwing in the working towel and taking up the backpack again. We have 3 months planned in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt) and then will come back to Europe to buy a car and do some travel through the continent. With all going well we should travel through the Summer and look to be heading back to Australia around August 2011.
So who knows when the next entry will be....
More photos
