Tourist:
The gils wanted to shop but I wanted to do some very touristy things so we split up. The girls spent a good portion of their day in the Chuca district especially along the Passeig de Gracia where you can find stores like Burberry, Armani, Zara, Ferregamo, Louis Vuitton, etc.
I headed out on the bus turistic. This is a very touristy thing to do but I found it a great way to explore the city. You can buy a one or multiple day pass. I forget exactly how much it cost, but it wasn't very expensive. They way it works is you buy a pass and you can get on the bus as much as you want for as many day passes you buy. There are three routes throuout the city, red, blue and green (the green route is only open March 14 - Sept. 28). Along each of the routes there are specific touristy stops which you can get off and explore further. You can then get back on the bus and go somewhere else. There are specific stops where you can transfer from one route to another. Your ticket also gets you some earphones that you can plug into your seat and listen to a recorded tour of the city as you drive around. The bus is a double decker style with the top level open to the air. If it's nice weather the top it where you want to be, of course everyone thinks that, so it fills up fast. You can avoid a little of this by getting on at less crowded stops. Here's a scan of the bus route map and a picture from the top of the bus that gives you an idea of what it looks like.
I really liked this. Having never been to Barcelona and wanting to see as much as I could this was great. It took you all over, you could get on an off pretty much all day (I think it ran until about 6pm or 7pm. You can also take pictures right from the bus if you don't want to get off at a particular spot. I spent a bunch of time just riding around and listening to the tour, but I stopped at a couple of places.
Poble Espanyol:
I really liked this place. It was built as a temporary exhibit for a world's fair but people really liked it so it's still standing. It's sort of a recreated mini version of Spain. There are examples of many different kinds of Spansih archtecture and there are bunches of shops and cafes. Many ofthe shops sell hand made items and the shop usually serves as the artists workshop/studio as well. You can take a recorded self guided tour for a few euros to hear more abou the different architectual elements. If I would have had more time, I would have stayed here longer, but I stayed for about two hours then moved on.
The Barcelona Aquarium:A decent aquarium, not the greatest I've ever been to, not the worse. The aquarium is near the harbor and there are some restaurants nearby as well.
Egypt Museum
(Museu Egipci De Barcelonaz: http://www.museuegipci.com/) So, if you like Egyptian stuff, this is a nice little museum. The displays are very nicely displayed in a very neat, modern, streamlined displays. They have several mummies and a great explanation of the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds in ancient egypt. It's not terribly big and I spent about an hour or two there. No pictures were allowed in the museum but you can see some on their website.
Anton Gaudi
Anton Gaudi is Barcelona's best known archetect and you can his works all over Barcelona. They say Barcelona has always embraced the non traditional styles and freedom of artistic expression that Gaudi represented and his work has a great influence over the entire psyche of the city and it's people. A few Gaudi shots:
Homeward Bound:
I met up with the girls late in the day and we went for a last dinner in Bercelona. It was some little place we stumbled on that had pretty good food:
The next morning we visited a farmers market just off the Rambla, good coffee and pastries and almost any kind of fresh food you'd like. Smoothies seemed to be really popular:
The Barcelona airport was a bit chaotic but getting through security was pretty easy once we identified exactly where we supposed to go. Our flight was on time and uneventful. Thus endeth our trip to Spain.
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