We woke up bright and early, alright not so early but we left the apartment in the morning to head to La Boqueria to find ourselves some food. I had a delicious strawberry juice and a cheese, spinach and eggplant empanada for breakfast.
We had a rather large group but our guide Tommy did a great job of showing us around the old parts of Barcelona and giving us a good understanding of the history of Barcelona. We walked through some of the old Roman ruins on display in the Museum of the City.
The tour was about three hours long and we ended it in Parc de la Ciutadella. The tour operates on a tip basis and you give the guide what you want to. After the tour we decided that we wanted to check out Sandeman's Gaudi and Modernisme tour that costs €12. We had the same guide Tommy and followed him back to Plaça de l'Àngel to meet up with the small group who were also coming on the tour.
We walked to the 4 Cats and Palau de la Musica Catalana before heading through Placa Catalunya and up Passeig de Gracia.
Saint George or Sant Jordi is very big in Spain and you can see him all over buildings in Barcelona killing dragons as he sees fit.
Palau de la Musica Catalana is a concert hall built between 1905 and 1908 for the Orfeó Català, a choral society founded in 1891 that was a leading force in the Catalan cultural movement that came to be known as the Renaixença (Catalan Rebirth).
Casa Lleó-Morera is a building designed by modernisme architect named Lluís Domènech i Montaner. It is one of the three important buildings of Barcelona's Illa de la Discòrdia ("Block of Discord".)
Casa Amatller was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. The building was originally designed as a residence for chocolatier Antoni Amatller and was constructed between 1898 and 1900.
Casa Battló is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. A remodel of a previously built house, it was redesigned in 1904 by Gaudí and has been refurbished several times after that.
Casa Mila ( La Pedrera) was undergoing cleaning at the time so I snapped a few photos of the rooftop from the street below. The chimney stacks amongst the clouds were very pretty. We planned to return back to La Pedrera to visit the roof.
La Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church designed by Antoni Gaudi. Though incomplete it is a UNESCO world heritage site. Construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882 and Gaudí became involved in 1883. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926 less than a quarter of the project was complete. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.
After walking for around five hours we were starting to feel quite tired and also quite hungry. We walked around quite a bit in search of food before settling on La Reina del Raval in La Rambla del Raval where we split a really tasty calzone. After enjoying the food we headed back to our apartment and slept happily.
All the buildings are so breath taking. I'm glad you took the tours, good choice. The market looked like it had many good food choices, and it all looked so yummy! Jess always has a smile on her face when she's about it eat. The Calzone looks absolutley delicious!
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