Barcelona on a Sunday

April 21.

Since many if not most things are closed on Sunday and, since we needed a little down time ourselves, we had a leisurely breakfast and morning in the hotel. 

But the sun called us out eventually and before long we were on the Metro heading toward Montjuïc, an outdoor park and so much more. Home to the 1992 summer Olympics besides the village and stadium is also the Fundació de Joan Miró, as well as numerous gardens, paths, facilities of sone sort or another and at the very top the castle, an old fortress with incredible views of the city. That was our destination for the day.

The Metro line connected easily to the funicular that would take us midway up the mountain. From there we would be on our own.

Once we left the funicular station we strolled the park, or rather a series of loosely connected green spaces. There is a cable car that goes to the top but the queue was looooooooong.

to the left is the entrance to the cable car

part of the 1992 Olympic complex

From the Olympic village complex we walked back toward the funicular station. Since we weren't getting any truly serious views of the city we thought we'd make our way to the the castell at the very top. So we hopped on the no. 150 bus (the Metro tickets are good for busses as well) and rode to the top.

An old fort, the guns are now used for kids to play on and adults to write on. . .

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entrance to the castell

tunnel leading to the central parade ground

views from the top

central parade ground, now a cafe

a vast near-emptiness

looking north toward Costa Brava and France

Leaving the castell we made our way back down the mountain on bus no. 150 which dropped us off at Plaça d'Espanya.

Las Arenas in the background

From the bus stop we made our way toward Las Arenas in hopes of finding a place for a late lunch. Nestled up against the old bullfighting ring was Tapa-Tapa where we had to queue for a table inside. But we didn't have to wait long. We soon found ourselves seated in a peaceful corner and ordered some cava and tapas.

Our placemats doubled as the menu. We shared a plate of tomato bread and delicious wok veggies followed by a couple of different chicken tapas. Pretty tasty!

Leaving the restaurant we wandered into Las Arenas. Although most of the shops were closed, the food areas were all open as was the upper observation deck. 

Next: Parc Güell and more from the mind of Antonio Gaudi.

Back to the hotel for a light supper.

Train to Barcelona

April 19.

After a leisurely breakfast we checked out and schlepped our bags downhill to the train station. Since there were so many trains a day to Barcelona we didn't have to wait long for one to depart. Once we placed our bags in a rack, we found a pair of seats and settled in for the hour or so ride to the city.

Not long after we were underway we began chatting with our seatmate. His company is in Barcelona but he mostly works from his home south of the city. We talked about life and its unusual twists and turns and discussed issues both large and small. He was a fascinating conversationalist, and we enjoyed the banter back and forth. To top it off he was very familiar with the scene in Mel Brooks' movie History of the World where Moses comes down the mountain with three tablets of 15 commandments but drops one. . . And very generous too: he gave us his card before we left the train and said if we ever got lost or needed help to give him a call. 

Barcelona Sants train station

an easy walk to the hotel

Once out of the station -- again by the kindness of the station staff acknowledging our Eurail passes to get us through the turnstiles -- we headed off to the hotel. A short walk made a bit longer as a consequence of going down the wrong street for about 10 minutes before realizing our error.

We eventually found the right street and were soon checked in and settled in.

Our lone objective for the day was to find the hop-on-hop-off bus system and get a clear tourist-eye lay of the land. Barcelona is BIG and it would be easy to spend one's time walking around aimlessly. We located where the busses begin/end their tours at Plaça Catalunya, about a 30-minute walk from our hotel, down the seemingly endless wide, tree-lined boulevards.

  

Once we reached the Plaça de Catalunya we easily spied the double-decker busses and made our way to the ticket booth. 

We opted for the Barcelona City Tour company; the other system of tour buses is called the Barcelona Buses Touristic. Both companies share the same start/end locations and the routes are somewhat similar as well. 

A base ticket was good for 24 hours (upgradable to 48 hours). The tour is made up of two distinct routes, and we thought that would be plenty of time to cover both tour routes. We began with the orange route (and would continue tomorrow with the green). Coincidentally, the tail end of the orange route would let us hop-off at the Sants railroad station thus allowing us to easily get back to the hotel.

We found a place topside in the sun and off we went. The journey was slow and ponderous due to heavy Friday afternoon traffic but the slowness of the journey gave us a fine opportunity to see not just the scheduled hop-off sights but get a fuller sense of the city as a whole.

The one downside was the late afternoon gusty wind which stirred up all the leafing-out tree debris, filling our eyes with grit. So we opted to go down and sit inside for much of the trip. Along the route we passed some of the city's major attractions, including:

Arc de Triumf

statue honoring Christopher Columbus

the World Trade Center

From the port area the bus made its way up nearby Montjuïc past the Fundacio de Joan Miro.

And then back down the hill to Plaça d'Espana. Since our hotel is located just a 10-15 minute walk from this plaça, we knew we'd be back here soon. Besides containing spaces for various expositions (a bridal show was underway), the plaça is also the the location for the commercial centre Las Arenas. After years of neglect this former bullfight ring was, inevitably perhaps, turned into an indoor shopping mall.

Plaça de'Espanya, view from the top of Las Arenas

From the plaça it was a short hop to the Sants station where got off for the day and walked back to the hotel. 

That evening we found a small Asian restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel and had a pair of simple rice dishes for dinner.

Next: Barcelona in a big way.