Barcelona

The weekend of October 10-12 we visited Barcelona with Pat and Roger Bonnicksen. We were unaware that it was a holiday weekend in Spain. Monday October 12th was Columbus Day (those of you over 40 may remember when we used to celebrate that day). Barcelona was where the king and queen of Spain met Columbus on his return from the new world. Needless to say, it was a very busy place.


Barcelona is a big city. It has 3 million inhabitants and there is not a house to be found anywhere in the city. There are many, many high rise apartment buildings.

Barcelona is home to the "mondernista" architect Gaudi. These pictures are examples of his buildings. The first picture is one of the most famous buildings in Barcelona, the Familia Sagrada, one of Gaudi's buildings, a church that is still incomplete. They continue to work on it even after his death.

I can't say I'm a big fan of this type of architecture.


My favorite spot in Barcelona was "the Ramblas" which is a long pedestrain street that works it's way down the hill and ends at the waterfront, where a statue of Columbus stands guard. This street is home to many vendors including street artists. The cowboy was just one of many of these artists working for handouts.


We took a speedboat tour of the harbor which was a lot of fun. Mentioned on one of our tours, "Barcelona was a city with its back turned on the ocean." The 1992 Olympics changed that and it now has a vibrant waterfront.