Museum Hopper

At the last minute, we decided to go to Park Guell on the north side of Barcelona.   The park limits the number of people who can go in so I definitely recommend buying tickets in advance.  It also appears that a number of tours buy blocks of them for the "normal" times.  We booked tickets for 8:30 AM to 9 AM slot.   We really enjoyed it.  We arrived around 8:45 AM.  The Park was supposed to be a residential compound.     We didn't get a chance to go into this building on the grounds.  If we were to do it again, I would consider bee-lining to this.  They do not let a lot of people in it once. We then headed up to the terrace.   These are some of the most famous images in Barcelona.   We really enjoyed visiting the park! Times visited: 1 Time in garden: 2 hrs Overall: A-

After we wrapped up in Casa Batllo, we headed over to La Pedrera  or Casa Mila .  Jason had bought two tickets to La Pedrera, one for a day time tour and one for a guided night time tour.   I’ll start with the day time tour.  We again bought a specific entry time for this.  We were there late afternoon and it was relatively quiet.  For this apartment complex, you start in the top floor, move out to the roof, and head down to an example apartment.  The family that owned this building lived on the second floor (1 floor in Spain) since this ensured that they did not have to rely on elevators.  Penthouses were not popular in the 1910s!  Jason’s favorite fun fact is that they had the first underground parking structure in Spain!  Gaudi was moving towards the combination of nature and Catholic religion in his designs.  Entrance to the "penthouse" on the second floor You have the option to take the stairs up, but...

After Sagrada Familia, we headed over to the Casa Batllo .  It was within (a long) walking distance.   We bought tickets in advance for this as well.  Of the Gaudi spots that we visited, this was probably my least favorite, but we (obviously) still enjoyed it.   At this visit, we were given virtual reality tablets to get a perspective on what the house looked like when people lived in.  What surprised us was that people still use/live in parts of the building.   This was initially a "normal" apartment building that an owner hired Gaudi to come in and transform. Entrance to the main floor of the building In the former main living space Ceiling in main front room The main floor feels a bit like you are in an aquarium  through most of the apartment building really. View of the street -- practical windows that open to get the fresh air The back patio is outside of the master bedroom on the second floor of...

I have been somewhat dreading writing this post since there are so many things we could talk about here.  That being said, I was really looking forward to seeing the Sagrada Familia .   We definitely bought tickets in advance.  The tickets we selected were the "top view," which included an audio guide and a visit to the towers.  We selected the birth facade as it has better views. We picked our tickets up on the nativity side. To get to the tower, you take an elevator up and walk the stairs down.  We spent about 30 minutes in the tower.   It was a beautiful view of the city. We then spent about two hrs in the rest of the basilica.  The tour starts outside with a history about the church and Gaudi .  This was Gaudi's final work.  He started on it in taking over in the first few years of construction.  He ended up dropping all other construction to focus solely on this project.  He ended up moving close t...

This post is probably going to be rather short!  We went to the Castle de Montjuic .  I will admit that I heard the name and definitely thought we were headed to an actual castle.  It was definitely a prison / jail!   The main part of the jail is not open.  The main courtyard has some galleries.  We headed up to the roof, which had a beautiful view of Barcelona.   The museum was not very expensive to get into, so probably worth it for the views from the top.  I was a little anxious about the sun at this point! While we were there, the gallery showed scenes from the Spanish revolution.  An artist had also gone to as many of the execution sites and taken photographs of the burial sites.  It was rooms of these photographs.   Time in fortress: 45 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B

On our first day in Barcelona, we decided to go to the Museu d'Historia de Barcelona .   It was much more extensive than I expected!  We bought tickets at the museum.   The museum allows visitors to see the Roman ruins, which were discovered under modern Barcelona.  They predict that Barcelona is over 25 feet higher today than it was when the Romans occupied it (similar to the statistic for modern Rome).  It covers decent ground, so not small.   They have uncovered all different buildings that existed including a wine storage facility, laundry, homes and even a temple.   Beautiful mosaic floors The audio guide was well done for this museum.   This was a great museum to set the tone for our visit to Barcelona.  We started in the early quarters and could see the build-up of Barcelona from here. Times visited: 1 Time in museum: 1.5 hrs Overall: A-