We started our day with a metro ride up to Parc Guell – Antoni Gaudi’s park atop a large hill in Barcelona. We were proud of ourselves for managing to figure out the metro. Once we exited the Metro station, we took numerous escalators up the large hill. It reminded us a lot of San Francisco with the hills, minus SF doesn’t have the outdoor escalators. What a crazy addition to Lombard Street! The park was beautiful and gave us a great view of the entire city – from Olympic Park, to the Cathedrals, to the harbor etc. This park is a result of a housing flop from Gaudi but the result is a beautiful park with all Gaudi’s mosaic creations from a giant lizard to the what is supposedly the world’s longest bench (decorated entirely in mosaic). There were some cool local artists playing music and lots of locals and tourists enjoying the warm Barcelona morning. This turned out to be one of our favorite places in Spain.
We decided to hike it back to the main part of Barcelona to enjoy Gaudi’s unconventional church, the unfinished masterpiece Sagrada Familia. We enjoyed a mini picnic (oranges and cookies/crackers free from breakfast and Jim’s discovery of what McDonald’s calls fries in Spain) outside the church and then entered with our English audio tour guides. This church (it is really more of a giant cathedral) was started in 1883 and is probably only 2/3 done. Gaudi only finished one façade (side) of it himself while a second architect just finished the next in a completely different style. The church was very impressive and it was great to see the workers in the process of building such a masterpiece. They estimate (hope) it will be finished in 2025.
We hiked it back to our hotel from the Sagrada Familia and took a nap before exploring the Rambles and the Barri Gotic again that night. This time we decided to take a recommendation from Rick Steve’s Best of Europe for dinner. What a success. We waited in line for La Crema Canela to open at 8pm and enjoyed a fantastic reasonably priced dinner. The most fantastic part was the simple yet delicious desert we discovered. Vanilla ice cream served w/ strawberries and fresh orange juice poured over it. Wow was that refreshing and good! We explored the harbor and the Christopher Columbus statue after dinner and the rest the ever exciting Rambles had to offer.
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