Sunday 21st June
Ready to start our adventures so we headed off to get our Metro ticket and then strolled along La Rambla which a central street in Barcelona. It is a tree lined mall that stretches for 1.2km from Placa Catalunya to the Columbus monument at Port Vell. Being Sunday there was a market as well as all the shops along the street and the open air restaurants on the mall.
The Columbus monument is a 60 metres high column erected in 1888. It is located at the site where Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas. A statue of Columbus pointing to the sea is at the top and there are bronze panels depicting scenes relating to his voyages as well as statues of people related to him and his voyages.
Port Vell was rebuilt for the Olympics in 1992 and is very large with enormous white boats moored and gleaming in the bright sunlight. It is much warmer today but there is a cool breeze coming off the water.
Next we have our first trip on the Metro to head up to Montjuic the site of the Olympic stadium. We also get a ride on a funicular and then walk on up the hill to the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys Barcelona Olympic Stadium originally built in 1927 it was renovated for the Barcelona Games. It has a seating capacity of 54 000 but more during the games. Montjuic is a hill South west of the city overlooking the harbour.
Unfortunately the are working on the arena surface so we could only look through from the outside. The torch missed by the archer with the flaming arrow looks impressive on the side of the stadium. The outside areas and other venues are also beautifully set out.
We caught the cable car up to the top of Montjuic Castle an old military fort which over looks the sea. During the civil war both sides in the conflict imprisoned, tortured and shot political prisoners including the former President of Catalunya Lluis Companys. Lucky for us as we arrived only had to wait 10 minutes and were given free tickets to get in. Great view from the top overlooking Barcelona Harbour with cruise ships in port.