On Saturday April 2nd Melissa and I took a short flight to Barcelona for a short weekend visit.  Our excuse for the trip was seeing my cousin Michelle and her husband Brian Clark, who just so happened to be on the same continent as us.  They were vacationing in Barcelona from Saturday until Thursday, then coming up to visit us in Switzerland before flying back to Minnesota on Monday the 11th. Even though we left Barcelona early enough on Monday for Melissa to get in a full day of work, we still found time to see much of the city, eat some delicious food, and soak in the Spanish atmosphere.

Our flight out of Geneva was at 9:10 a.m., so we arrived a little before 8 a.m. thinking we would have plenty of time.  But the airport was the most crowded I’d ever seen it, and worse, we flew the budget airline Veuling.  They annoyingly charge you to print tickets at home, but don’t charge you to print them at their service desk.  I wasn’t about to waste 10 euros on hidden fees, so we stood in their line for close to half an hour to get our tickets.  Then we hurried through security, which, despite the long lines, moved surprisingly fast.  At the gate people were already in line to board, but we needed our coffee.  We had just enough time to buy a cup each and burn our mouths guzzling it down before being close to the last ones on the plane.

We landed in warm sunny Barcelona at 10:35 a.m., then easily found a city bus from the airport to our hotel.  One of the first things I noticed about Barcelona was the language.  English and Spanish were on all the important signs, along with a third language: Catalan, the official language of Barcelona, which seems like a mix of Spanish and French to me.  After studying French for so long it was fun to see some other romance languages and to surprise myself when I could occasionally guess what the signs without English said.

We were too early to check into our hotel, so we dropped off our suitcase, grabbed some more coffee, then hopped on a subway to central Barcelona.  Our plan was to wonder around and sight see for a while until Brian and Michelle were ready to meet up. (Saturday was their first day in Barcelona too, and their flight was scheduled at 11:50 a.m.) We got off the subway in the oldest neighbor of Barcelona called the Gothic Quarter, then meandered through the labyrinth of narrow streets among the tall, medieval, buildings.  The whole neighborhood seemed to be mostly closed to cars, and it was a good thing because the streets were packed with tourists.

Eventually we came to a famous, touristy, street called La Rambla marking the edge of the quarter.  This street is a broad boulevard with a wide, tree-lined, center section reserved for pedestrians.  We decided to join the crowd of tourists and walk along it to its end near the ocean.  As we walked along we passed numerous sidewalk cafes, souvenir shops, and street performers.  The ocean end of the street is marked with a roundabout holding a giant, 197 ft tall, monument celebrating Christopher Columbus at its center.  As we were trying to decide how we felt about the monuments depiction of Native Americans, Michelle texted me that they were checked in to their hotel and ready to go.

The Clark’s hotel was a short walk away in the Gothic Quarter.  We met Michelle in the lobby, but Brian was feeling jet lagged and stayed back to take a nap.  It was around 2 p.m. so our first order of business was finding some lunch.  We headed back to La Rambla, and found a promising looking restaurant, where we all ordered paella, the famous local dish, and I had sangria, the famous local drink.

After lunch we walked down to the harbor, where we saw many enormous yachts, some so big it was hard to believe they were private boats.  Then we hailed a taxi cab, and rode up to the tallest hill in town called Montjuïc.  The hill juts up 563ft right next to the ocean.  The hillside facing the commercial harbor is more like the face of a cliff, while the other side of the hill is a gentler slope with a switch backing road, and oddly enough, a gondola to take tourists to the top.  At the top there is a large fort whose moat is filled with flower gardens, some impressive views of the coast, as well as a panorama of the whole city.   Coming down from the hill we decided to do the touristy thing and ride the gondola.

From the bottom of the hill we walked until we found a subway station, then hopped on a train heading back to the city center.  We exited at a stop near two famous buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi, named  Casa Milà, and Casa Batlló.  Gaudi is famous for making Barcelona the center of an architectural movement known as Catalan Modernism.  A style that tries to mimic nature, rejecting lines for curves, and is known for rich decoration and detail.  In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Gaudi designed many buildings throughout Barcelona in the style.  The two buildings we saw were great examples, easily recognizable and sticking out from the rest of the cities more conforming style.

We then sat down for some tapas, after which Michelle went back to her hotel and we went back to ours.  Melissa and I finished off Saturday with a late dinner near our hotel.

The first stop on Sunday’s itinerary was Parc Güell.  Located on a hill in the northwestern part of the city, the park is famous for being a showcase of Antoni Gaudi’s work.  It was originally planned to be a luxury housing development, with Gaudi designing the common spaces, but not enough lots were sold, so it was turned over to the city as a public park, and opened in 1926.  Much of the park is open access, forested, paths, but the section of common space designed by Gaudi requires an admission ticket.

We came to the park by a subway which only brought us to the base of the park’s hill.  We first had to walk up and up through the neighborhood next to the park, then after going through the park gate, we continued to trek upwards until we reached the highest point in the park, where a platform with a large cross sat, and we had a spectacular view of the entire city clear to the ocean.  We had reserved tickets for the Gaudi section of the park, and next walked down to enter.  It was interesting with the reserved ticket that we only had a small half hour window when we could enter.  This I think is to keep the number of tourists inside down, but it still seemed pretty crowded when we were there.

The section’s focal point, where we entered, is a large terrace, held up by classical looking columns.  Along the terrace’s edge is a serpentine bench with colorful pieces of broken pottery set into it making artistic designs.  Using broken pottery is a signature element in Gaudi’s designs.  On the column level a grand stairway lined with art, and a trickling stream of fountains, leads down to the originally planned entrance, where two flamboyant houses sit. Off from the main path are gardens and footpaths.  In some parts the footpaths were carved right into the hillsides with stone walls and columns that blended effortlessly with nature.  The art and architecture is very unique, and it seems to me that Gaudi really had free rein to experiment and create what he wanted.

Just as we were leaving the Gaudi section Michelle texted that she had arrived at the park to meet up with us.  We easily found her, then walked around a little while with her before all three of us caught a subway to our next stop: a grand church designed by Gaudi called Sagrada Familia.  The subway stop we exited was right across the street from the church, and it was awe inspiring to step out and see its full height up close.  Before taking the church tour, we sat at a cafe to have a snack, and to wait for Brian to meet us.

The church tour was very crowded and worked the same as Parc Güell, requiring you to enter only at a specific time.  It was a little expensive at 22 euros a piece, but during the tour they said the entry fees go to cover the continuing construction, so I didn’t feel so bad. The tour was self paced with an audio guide, and began at a side entrance, called the Nativity Facade, instead of the main entrance, because the main entrance was still under construction. In fact a lot of the church is still under construction.  It was started in 1882, and the current estimate for its completion is 2026.  The major work yet to complete includes the main entrance facade, called the Glory Facade, which will depict final judgement, heaven, and hell, as well as construction of ten more grand towers to bring the total number to eighteen.  These towers will symbolize the Twelve Apostles, the Four Gospels, the Virgin Mary, and the tallest tower, at 560 ft, Jesus, making the church the tallest church in the world.

The Nativity Facade, where we started, depicted Jesus’s birth and was built mostly during Gaudi’s lifetime.  His style was easy to see in the facade’s rich detail, curved lines, and warm natural themes. Entering the Church, it was incredible to see the light.  The outside was all a drab brown, but inside the stain glass windows were designed perfectly to cast a rainbow of colors.  I was struck by it feeling more warm and open than the usual gothic cathedrals Melissa and I had visited.  The columns holding up the high center ceiling were also really cool because they were designed like trees, starting as one pillar then branching off near the ceiling to form a canopy.  Our tour then took us outside the church to the Passion Facade, located on the side opposite from the Nativity Facade. This facade, sculpted in 1987, depicted Jesus’s death with cold, harsh looking, statues of straight lines.  The modern statues in front of a blank background were striking for making a completely different style than the Nativity Facade.  The final part of the tour was walking through a museum explaining the church’s history.

It was then getting near 3 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten a real lunch yet. But it was ok because it meant we had adapted to the local culture of late meal times.  We hopped on a subway to La Rambla and found a good, but a little pricey restaurant where everyone had pizza, except Melissa who wanted one last paella.  We then walked along La Rambla, through the Gothic Quarter, and eventually to an ocean beach.

Tired from a busy weekend of always walking, but satisfied in all our sightseeing, we said goodbye to the Clarks around 6 p.m. and caught a subway back to our hotel.  Our flight out on Monday was at 6:45 a.m., and included the same hassle of getting a boarding pass as before.  Back in Geneva at 8:30 a.m. it was amazing to think of all we were able see in one short weekend tour of Barcelona.

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