Well my second day was packed with activities. We hired a local Barcelonian to drive us around and show us the major attractions. Starting at 9:30 am we traveled to Montserrat a beautiful monastery tucked up in a mountain. From there we traversed the downtown neighborhoods of Barca and stopped at Guadi's park, Parc Guell and his two private homes that he designed. We also toured the inside of La Sagrada Familia, one of Guadi's most famous works. It is an impressive cathedral that has been under constant construction since 1882. It is still no where close to being finished. We ended the grand tour with a stop at the Olympic stadium from when Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992 and a stop at Montjuic. Montjuic is one of the tallest foothills that surrounds the city and from the top there is a very impressive view of the entire city. It was absolutely beautiful! The tour really gave me a sense of the entire city and at least got me a little bit orientated to where everything is in comparsion to my work, to our hotel, to the sea, etc.
Tomorrow we are taking a walking tour through the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) which is the original Barcelona. After this tour we will have caught a glimpse of all of the neighborhoods de Barcelona!
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Sounds exciting Linds. Glad your time in Barcelona so far is going well. How's the language thing going? Are you needing to know any espagnol? -Bridge
ReplyDeleteWell they speak Catalan here (a Spanish dialect) as well as Spanish. Catalan is really different from Spanish...more along the lines of Italian so I do not understand it at all. While I speak some Spanish, most people here see blond hair = American = English. So it actually has been fairly easy to communicate in English and if that's not possible than we default to Spanish. But the locals really prefer to speak Catalan over Spanish. In just the short time that I've been here I have quickly realized that Barcelonians like to think of themselves as a part Catalan and not really Spain. Some gov't buildings even try to get away with not hanging a Spanish flag. Its really crazy. So far so good!
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