Thursday : Fine

Had a bit of a lay in today, didn't have the best of sleeps last night. I think a few people in the hostel hit the town after the game, so when they came back in throughout the night I naturally woke up.

It was almost lunch time by the time we left the hostel, and the coffee provided didn't cut it today. We needed something a little stronger. We stopped in at a small local cafe for a couple of good old espressos.

We then picked up some chorizo, brie, baguettes and drinks to take up to a park that we were visiting today. The park that we are going to is called Parc Guell and is on a hill top called El Carmel and is another one of Antoni Gaudi creations.

We took the metro as close as we could to the park and then were lucky enough to find a street with escalators leading up to the top of the hill. It was a bit like the mid-level escalators in Hong Kong.

We entered the park and almost immediately we had great views of the city. We followed the paths around till we came to a picnic area, and we had another stroke of luck when we scored the last bench in the shade.

After lunch we had a good look around following the twisting paths through the 17 hectare park. The park was built between 1900 and 1914 and it was intended for sixty private family residences, but it was never completed and only two or three houses were built. Still, the park is one of the largest architectural works in Europe and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The main attraction is the intended covered market, a forest of columns below a terrace which has a good view of the city. The terrace edge is surrounded by a continuous wavy bench, and its surface is entirely made up of broken colourful tiles, which in some areas form pretty patterns. Gaudi also molded the bench by sitting in soft plaster to record the correct curves.

Just through the main entrance. Below the columned market and Terrace, is a dragon water feature in the middle of the divided staircase, completely covered in broken ceramic tiles. We didn't hang around the stair case for too long it was very busy.

Instead we continued our walk through the park back up to where we came in and found a good look out. We took a few photos and then headed out of the park and back down the hill towards the Sagrada Familiar for a one last look at the huge peculiar church.

We walked back to the hostel but had a bit of trouble finding it again. The hostel is in this area where all the streets and buildings look the same. Once we found the hostel we had a bit of a rest and a freshen up before we headed out into town.

We walked into town and passed by Palau de la Musica Catalana. An absolutely gorgeous building, probably my favorite so far. It had finished being built in 1908, and the facade of the building is decorated with many mosaics, columns and sculptures. Some of Bach, Beethoven, Wagner and Palestrina (don't ask me who the last guys is). UNESCO also declared it a World Heritage Site in 97, seems to be a lot of them in Barca! We could only peep through the front windows. To get inside you need to book a tour, but we could see just from peeping that the inside would be pretty impressive too.

We left the Palau de la Musica Catalana and the narrow streets that it's located in and had a short walk to Barcelona's pretty cathedral. The cathedral was constructed between the 13&15 centuries, and it's free to go in for a look. The interior was stunning the lighting was absolutely perfect, other churches should take note!

We then continued our walk around town and through the tight gothic quarter until we stopped in an old bar for a quick vino session.

We then walked past the Picasso museum and some old roman ruins to Parc de la Ciutadella. After its establishment during the mid 1900s, It was used for the Exposicio Universal de Barcelona in 1888, and then continued to develop into a very popular destination for locals and tourists. We walked through the park and wondered what is the population of Barcelona? Only because it seemed like half the population was out going for a jog! We had a seat by a lake, and tried to feed the ducks, but they weren't having a bar of it!

While having our sit down we heard some music being played and went to go and investigate. We walked past some museums, and came to a big fountain, where a stage had been set up, and there was an orchestra playing Disney tunes and dancers dancing to the music.

The stage was setup for a city wide festival on this weekend, and we watched the dancers for awhile close to a stone mammoth statue.

We then headed back up towards the arch where more stalls and stages had been setup, and picked up some beers and snacks to have before bed.