Բարսելոնա

Hello hello,

A warm hello and nice that you are here. In this post, I will cover 2 days of city sightseeing in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia will be covered in a separate post later.

My sightseeing started on Friday afternoon when I rushed into the city after checking in to visit a specific store. This store offers clothes that can be worn in various ways and which I stole from my good friend Katharina. Although I have had the dress in my online shopping cart several times, I was always too stingy to pay the 25 euros for shipping and wanted to know which colors suit me well here. So let's drive the 1800 km to Barcelona and go to this shop.

On the way there, I also familiarized myself with the city's public transportation since I had to be in the city early the next day for a bike tour. Unfortunately, I caught the weekend with track work, but the organization here is really top-notch and the attending staff directed us to all the rail replacement vehicles.

When I arrived in the neighborhood where the clothing store is located, I was delighted to find that a neighborhood festival is taking place this weekend and the individual streets have been artistically designed according to various themes.

I was really excited and a little sad that I wasn't out and about in the evenings here. But even so, it was an experience. Just like the experience in the clothing store. Here I found 2 different dresses or rather a jumpsuit that I absolutely loved.

I spent quite a bit of money, but I am absolutely happy about it and look forward to wearing these clothes for the first occasion!

Afterwards, I treated myself to a little sweet treat.

Now I went from street to street towards the south and towards Placa Catalunya.

In the whole city, you can already admire the individual works of Gaudi, and it becomes clear how important this architect and artist were to this city.

Then when I arrived at Placa de Catalunya, I took a closer look at the various artworks and monuments.

I couldn't make much sense of the last monument. After some research, I now know that the monument is intended to commemorate a Catalan politician and his fight for the independence of Catalonia.

Then I wandered through the old town for a while and after a short shopping trip for dinner, I rushed back to the hostel.

The next morning, I started where I left off the day before. Very pleasant, because the streets were not as hot and far from crowded yet.

On one of the main streets, there is the St. Joseph Market. A visit is highly recommended, but the prices are completely overpriced as it is a classic tourist trap and the locals don't really hang out here. But it's beautiful!

When I arrived at my destination for the morning, I enjoyed a bit of the city's hustle and bustle and waited for the start of my 3-hour bike tour. Since Barcelona is a really big city and I was a bit tired of walking, I had already booked the tour in advance and was really looking forward to pedaling a bit.

With the guide Lorenzo and some Americans, Swiss, and Canadians, we set out for a big sightseeing tour. Since the change of mayor 5 years ago, the city itself has a very pleasant bike path structure, and it is very pleasant to get around by bike here.

Fun fact: The facade of the cathedral was designed according to Gothic style after the fact to attract tourists from around the world to Barcelona. Before that, it was a very inconspicuous old church.

The Fundació Orfeó Català Palau de la Música Catalana is the headquarters of the Catalan Choir and the building was designed and built by the master of Gaudi. It is truly impressive and highly recommended artistically.

Originally, the architect of the Eiffel Tower was inquiring about whether he could build it in this square in Barcelona. However, the city declined. It's a very interesting idea to be able to look directly from the Eiffel Tower onto the sea.

The people were all very nice, and I had a short chat with each one of them. They all wished me further luck and celebrated me for traveling alone. I have to say that even when it comes from strangers, it feels good.

The beaches of Barcelona are not natural beaches but were created specifically for the Olympic Summer Games and since then, locals cannot imagine the city without them. The entire sand was imported from the Sahara and dumped piece by piece onto the designated areas.

Our tour ended here, and we made our way back to the starting point. Lorenzo gave us some additional tips there, and he also gave me and a Swiss participant some tips for our visit to Lisbon, as he is originally from Lisbon.

From the starting point, I continued exploring the city on my own and walked towards a viewpoint in the southwest of the city.

Since I had already walked quite a few miles, I decided to take the bus up the hill and then walk back down.

This hill was the venue for the 1992 Olympic Summer Games, and therefore, a lot was either reminiscent of it or built specifically for it.

For example, the Bell of Peace, which originally came from Württemberg, Germany, and due to its size, was given its own square.

From the coast, a special cable car was also built so that you could get an view of the castle and the competitions taking place at that time. I'll be honest: The gondolas feel really strange without any snow with temperatures of 33 degrees. I would have preferred snow.

But the ride up to the castle was definitely worth it because of the view.

On the way down, I also admired the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

What a view and what an impressive building and area.

After a few kilometers and another shopping trip, I headed back to the hostel, where I met a nice Australian guy and had dinner with him. Today, we will explore the city together.

In tomorrow's post, there will be extra information about the Sagrada Familia and Gaudi in general.

Tomorrow, I will continue south, and the day after tomorrow, I will already see the crazy people in Denia. I am incredibly excited!

Sending you hugs,

Your Britta