Barcelona

Rick had a 3-day training for work in Barcelona at the beginning of January. I decided to take advantage of the free accommodations and stayed a couple of nights in his hotel. We extended our trip through the weekend and got a cheaper hotel right in the center of town. I found Barcelona to be not only beautiful, but also very bohemian and laid-back. There are many interesting sites to tour, but it’s also a fun place to just hang out. I had a couple of days to explore on my own and a couple of days with my tour guide, Rick. He’d been there before. The weather was beautiful—sunny and 65-70F—a nice reprieve. The food was also very good and cheap by European standards. We had a great time. Here are some highlights from our trip:

1. Strolling down the famous, pedestrian boulevard, Las Ramblas—lined with performers and vendors selling all sorts of weird things


2. Sitting on a bench on Las Ramblas and taking it all in—really good people watching


3. Visiting the Picasso Museum--interesting because there were a lot of works from his early years


4. Wandering through the narrow, medieval streets and window shopping


5. Walking along the waterfront


6. Going out dancing with Deloitte employees from all over Euroupe—intimidating for two old, Americans, who don’t have much rhythm


7. Staying out until 4am on the same night mentioned above—don’t know when that happened last


8. Going out for a nice dinner (seafood paella and sangria for me) with one of the guys from the Rotterdam office and his girlfriend


9. Spending a beautiful day at Antoni Gaudi’s, Parc Guell and having a picnic lunch on the funky benches—Blown away by this place—resembles something out of a Dr Seuss book!


10. Taking an audio tour of Gaudi’s Casa Batillo—amazing home built without a single straight edge—contains materials and designs that emphasize Gaudi’s love of nature and respect for the environment—again, blown away!


11. Climbing the towers of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia—construction of the church began in 1882 and it is still only half built—contains designs and stone carvings that represent important religious figures and events—truly mind-boggling!

They did not speak much English in Barcelona, so we had to pull out a few Spanish phrases. Rick was almost conversational in Spanish at one time and I knew enough to get around while travelling. We've been focusing so much on French, that we couldn't remember anything at first. Words started coming back the longer we were there and, although they speak Catalan Spanish, we were able to get by. The weird thing was that we had the most difficulty with the easy words like hola, adios, por favor, and gracias. I guess the French equivalents are now ingrainded in our heads!

If you would like to see the entire photo gallery, please e-mail me and I will send you the link via Kodak EasyShare.