Europe 2011-Barcelona

Day 16-Day 1 of Barcelona

The cruise boat docked in Barcelona early on our last day, so we tried to get our energy back up to hit our one day in Barcelona hard. I didn't have the same energy I had when we were in Prague, but I was able to give Barcelona a good effort. I was ready to go home and was not looking forward to the long flights ahead of us the next day. But here is what we saw of Barcelona!

Christopher Columbus Monument

There is a long stretch of shops called "Las Ramblas" so we walked up this street and found an open market with a ton of fresh seafood. It was VERY fresh, right off the boat. Some of the crabs and lobsters were still moving. Yuck. Nate thought it was awesome!

A view of Las Ramblas

The most touristy sight in Barcelona is this church called Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi. It is a church that he started back in 1882 and is still being worked on today using Gaudi's original plans. It isn't even close to being done. They still have many towers to add and one more facade. It was an incredible sight to see. This of view of the Nativity facade which is the only one that Gaudi actually worked on himself before he died.

Passion facade

Inside of the church. It was enormous. Of course we couldn't capture the magnitude of the building in any of our pictures.

We loved how the columns looked like trees. Gaudi was very inspired by nature in all of his works.

Another inside view.

View of the Nativity facade and the outside of the nave.

Sadly I can't remember the name of the square and arch (without look it up on our map), but we thought it was beautiful with the palm trees.

Barcelona Cathedral

Another of Gaudi's works called Park Guell. Very cool design.

A last view of Barcelona from Park Guell. We also went to a Picasso Museum that was awesome with many of his early works before his cubism began. It was very cool.

Our trip home didn't go quite as we planned. Our flight from Barcelona was delayed so of course we missed our connecting flight at JFK. So instead of getting home at 7:00pm on the 19th, but got home about 1:00am on the 20th, but I think the kids forgave us for being late when they saw all the souvenirs we brought home for them. It was an awesome trip full of memories for a lifetime!