Spain: Day IV (Barcelona)

Saturday, August 6^th:

A Mosaic Lizard in Park Guell:

            Today we visited even more parts of Barcelona that we had not seen before. This has to be one of the bigger cities I have visited on the trip. We woke up extraordinarily late, as we did not get to sleep until around almost 8am. Collins was out looking for his wallet and phone, which was eventually presumed pick-pocketed, so we decided to head out around 4pm to see some more sites. With none of us really hungry at this point, we walked straight over to the Medieval district of the city to check out the famed Gothic Cathedral. On our way we also passed the Arc de Triomf, a red and smaller version of the famed arch in Paris. Some movie company was also filming what looked like a scene of death and destruction at the Arc, but we carried on.

The Gothic Cathedral of Barcelona:

            We made our way to the important site of the day, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia, also known as the Gothic Cathedral. Unfortunately, the church was undergoing renovations (I was doing so well for a while without these!) but visitors were still able to go inside and explore the church. It reminded me a lot of the ones I had seen early on in my trip in Germany and Scotland. The church walls were made of stone that seemed almost scorched and charred, and the interior was filled with magnificent gold decoration. We hung out there for a little while before grabbing a cab to check out Park Guell, a park designed by Antoni Gaudí.

An Entrance Building to Park Guell:

It was actually a pretty long ride before we were there, but it was quite apparent when we had arrived. The entrance to Park Guell looks like it is straight out of Dr. Suess Land in at Universal Studios. The buildings are designed in such a unique and distinct style—none of us had ever seen anything like it. Each building that Gaudí makes is just so different than the next! As the park is also situated on one of the higher hills in the city, we walked around the park trails to take in all of the incredible views across the city to the Mediterranean. It also gave us a pretty cool and unique photo opportunity overlooking the Sagrada Familia. Pretty cool that the city is so interconnected with the life of Gaudí and his famous work.

The Sagrada Familia from Park Guell:

            Following our time spent at the park, we decided to walk back down the hill to our hostel and get some food on the way. It was now dark and we were very hungry, so we stopped at an Italian place where I ate some Barcelona Pizza (Minced Beef, Onions) and a Caprese Salad (I just can’t escape these even if I wanted to!). The walk took a very long time but we were happy to enjoy our last night in the city. We also found our way back to the Sagrada Familia so we could experience what it looked like at night. The building is illuminated with powerful lights, and it will truly be a world masterpiece upon completion. It already is now! We decided to turn it in pretty early after some post-dinner drinks seeing as we had such a long night prior. Tomorrow we will take a train to the capital city of Spain, Madrid!

The Arc de Triomf: