Andorra and Barcelona - an amazing duet
Day six of the "Two Poles of Passion" tour:
Andorra - the first acquaintance.
Although today it was possible to sleep a little longer, but how can you miss such a great opportunity, at least a little bit to see this mountainous little country. After all, even in my dreams I did not plan to visit here, and then such a happy opportunity presented itself. After all, we did not just transit through Andorra, we spent the night in a wonderful 4-star hotel in the capital of the principality, and had 2-3 hours of free time here.
Separately, I want to tell you about the breakfast at the hotel. The fact that breakfast here will be very good, I read on the Internet. But when I saw the entire assortment of the buffet, it exceeded all expectations. In addition to excellent meat and cheese delicacies, several hot dishes in the form of sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs, there were red fish cuts on the table, fresh vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, and something else that I don’t even know the name of.
And the fruits were both salads and whole, well, fresh pineapples were also cut into rings. And at the front of the table were three large open bottles of wine. There was red, rosé and white wine. I like red wine more, so I started with it. Then I decided to try pink, it smelled like roses. There wasn't enough room for white.
After such a sumptuous breakfast, we leave the hotel, and after asking at the reception which way to go to the main street of the city, we go shopping. On the way to the bus, Marina told us that there is a duty-free zone, and the prices for all goods are lower than in France and Spain, by about 20-30%. So we decided to check if this is so.
It was still quite early, and clothing stores were still closed, but we found a large supermarket not far from the hotel, and stuck in it for a long time.
Indeed, I have never seen such a large selection of spirits, olive oil, Swiss chocolate, fruits, meat delicacies anywhere else. And here we bought the Spanish wine "Rioja" and "Jerez", and olive oil in a 3-liter iron can. We already knew how to choose olive oil, so we chose the best Spanish. My husband bought some rum and aniseed vodka for testing. Prices were around 4 euros. Granddaughters bought chocolates in different designs. They especially liked the chocolate candies in the form of buttons with icing.
After the supermarket, we return to the hotel, along the way I took some pictures of the surrounding streets. But I didn’t see anything so unusual, just a cozy clean city, a mountain river with rapids flows through the city. Lots of hotels and shops. In general, a paradise for tourists. Well, we need to hurry to pack things. After all, bags are added.
We left, as planned, at 11 o'clock. The group continues to please with its punctuality. On the way from Andorra to Spain we were stopped by the police. We thought that they would check us, prepared passports, but Marina was only asked: do you carry a lot of smuggling? To which she replied that we arrived late at night and were already leaving, so we didn’t have time to buy almost anything. Nobody checked us, and we calmly left for Spain. It turns out that there is a certain norm for the export of alcohol and products from Andorra. Because the prices here are lower than in Spain, and the border residents of Spain come here and buy all the goods in large quantities. For this there is a customs control. But not too strict. They check cars with Spanish numbers the most. And we have Polish numbers on the bus.
There was no passport control either at the entrance or at the exit.
Andorra accepts all tourists who travel around Europe with any visa.
This is how our first acquaintance with Andorra took place.
Day Six - Afternoon
Barcelona - I'm glad to meet you!
We are going to Barcelona, but on a different road. This is no longer the beautiful serpentine we drove at night. I am slightly disappointed. Barcelona is 205 km away. We pass beautiful green mountains, some kind of lake, then we drive along the river bank. The landscape gradually changes to a more flat one. We pass by the ridge of mountains on which the monastery of Montserrat is located. Marina draws the attention of those tourists who will come here on an excursion tomorrow.
At about 2 pm we drive up to the Olympic village area, where we have to pick up our Barcelona guide. While she's away, we have 15-20 minutes of free time on the photo. We were already in Barcelona last year, but the city is beautiful and we are happy to meet again. In Barcelona, the heat is 30 degrees.
, people swim and sunbathe. The beach is sandy and beautiful. I so wanted to go back into the water and wander knee-deep. But here they are already calling the bus, and we are going to the survey.
Guide to Barcelona Sofia. The presence of a microphone at the guide pleased us. Sophia asked in which hotel we were staying. Marina told her that she was in the Guell Park area, so Sofia adjusted her route. We first drove around the city in a circle, then we stopped at the site at the Gothic Quarter, and we had a full walking tour of the Gothic Quarter. This was a big plus for our survey, since this excursion is usually allocated as a paid elective. Last year we did not visit this quarter, but now we have filled this gap. I must say that, since I am not a big fan of such quarters, this excursion did not particularly touch me. But for a complete acquaintance with Barcelona, it is necessary to go there.
After the Gothic Quarter, we move to the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. There, too, Sofia tells the group about the cathedral for a long time. But here we were already last year, so we walked around the cathedral again ourselves, filmed a short video, and went to the gift shop next to the cathedral. And they did not lose, because soon the whole group pulled up there. There's a free toilet there.
I had a goal to buy a tourist map there with sights in Russian. Such cards for 4 euros were on the shelf in all languages except Russian. It can be seen that Russian-speaking tourists have already sold out, but they have not reported new cards. And so I asked Sofia to bring me such a card. I waited a long time, but still they brought it from somewhere in the back room. No one else in the group was interested in cards.
After the cathedral, we drive through the city again, look at the houses of Gaudi from the window, pass the Plaza of Spain, and then Marina says that we have changes in the location of the hotel, and we will live in the area of Plaza Españ a. Everyone is happy about this turn with the hotel.
At 18:00 we head to the hotel. I must say that here again our driver showed his skills. To get us to the very door of the hotel, he drove for a whole block down a narrow one-way street in reverse. We even joked about it, remembered a bearded anecdote on this topic. But he delivered us right under the door, and already at 18-15 I take the first photo in the room. Aparthotel BCN Montjuic 3*. The room was with an entrance hall with a sofa and a table, a small kitchen, and a bedroom. The windows of the room overlooked the inner courtyard with a winter garden. We were calm and quiet. Everything is great for relaxing.
It's still light outside, and we quickly change clothes and go to the Plaza de Españ a.
The comparison was made not in favor of Barcelona. But for dinner we found something to buy.
Having thus worked up an appetite, we return to the hotel, and in my kitchenette I prepare a simple dinner for us. All conditions for this are provided here. And most importantly, there is a normal empty refrigerator. From my last year's trip, I already had an idea about Spanish cuisine, and personally it does not suit me. I did not like their paella, and I immediately decided that in Spain we would eat at the hotel. To do this, we brought instant soups and cereals with us, but we buy meat delicacies, dairy products, vegetables and fruits, juices, beer and spirits in supermarkets. There was also a small problem with the bread. But then we started buying whole packages of buns, and in this way we solved this problem.
In the future, when we had days with moving, I prepared these buns with meat delicacies in advance in the evening in a small plastic container I brought with me, put it all in the refrigerator for the night, and then took it with me on the bus in the morning, along with fruit and beer. And before arriving in the next city, we took out our supplies and refreshed ourselves on the bus, and already on the excursion we were not looking with hungry eyes for a bite to eat. If there was an opportunity, then we again went to the supermarket, and again bought the necessary things for dinner. Thus, my husband was never hungry and angry. We also sometimes rescued ice cream and bananas.
Well, now it's time to relax. Tomorrow we have an independent Barcelona.
Day seven - independent Barcelona
In the morning, the hotel has a quite decent breakfast buffet, and part of the group goes to Montserrat Monastery.
We already visited all the electives offered last year, so today we have our own program in Barcelona. Of all the known tourist sites, we have not covered the Spanish village and the aquarium. The Spanish village is within a 10 minute walk from the hotel and we start there.
At 10 o'clock in the morning we have already bought two tickets for 9.5 euros and we pass through the gates of the museum. Regardless of the early time, a group of Chinese people were already ahead of us. I had to wait again until they went forward along the route.
As an attachment to the tickets, we were given a small guide to the museum, with building numbers in circles of different colors, and here on the plan there was a small map of Spain, and the regions were marked on it under the same colors as the circles. This is so that you can distinguish buildings by belonging to the region. I did not immediately figure out what and how, and then I understood, and I could already navigate further.
The plan was in 4 languages: Spanish (or Catalan), Arabic, Russian and Chinese. There was also an audio guide, but there is no audio guide in Russian.
It was written in the guide that two autonomies are not represented in the museum: the Canary Islands and Rioja. It’s clear about the islands, far away, and why there is no Rioja remains a mystery.
We faithfully walked through the whole village, guided by the guidebook. Most of all in the museum there were Chinese and children of school age. Children were led around the territory in whole classes. Most likely, they had an object lesson in the history of Spain.
We walked around the museum for almost two hours, when we left it, it was 11-50.
What can I say about this self-guided tour of ours: for a general understanding of Spain, it was a useful tour, but I expected more, something unusual, so there was a slight disappointment. I remember my delight at the museum "Italy in Miniature", here I did not feel such delight.
After the Spanish Village, we take the escalator up to the National Palace. We sat there on a bench, admired the surrounding streets from a height. We didn’t go to the museum, the weather is wonderful, so we decide to take a walk around the Montjuic mountain.
On the way we go to the Olympic stadium. Last year we were already at the Camp Nou stadium of FC Barcelona, and today we have the opportunity to visit the Olympic stadium. The gates were open and entry was free. But there is no far passage, only a small platform near the entrance. This was enough for an overview of the stadium and a few photos.
The Olympic Stadium is a fairly modest building compared to the Camp Nou, about three times smaller. Near the entrance stands a column with a bowl for the Olympic flame. And there near the entrance we had an interesting meeting.
At the entrance to the stadium there is such a “macho” in a white suit with some kind of jar and collects donations, supposedly for the development of Olympic sports. But we have seen a lot of such swindlers in Ukraine, therefore, laughing and talking, we pass by, and suddenly this “macho” says after us in Russian with a clearly Armenian accent that “these Russians are so greedy, they never serve. ” Here we already burst out laughing out loud, and said that "we figured you out right away, you won't fool us, you can breed Europeans. " This is how people from the former Soviet republics in Barcelona are trying to swindle tourists, fraud is already rampant there.
Near the stadium there is an alley of Olympic champions, with brass traces of their sports shoes. I could not take my husband away from this alley for a long time, in my opinion, he filmed every trace. I remember only the footprint of the shoes of Sergei Bubka and Martina Navrotilova, and the imprint of the bare tiny foot of Nadia Comaneci.
So, slowly, we climbed the mountain past flowering shrubs and palm trees, and went to the observation deck of the port. There is a kiosk with souvenirs and a small kiosk with water and ice cream. We decide to recuperate after the ascent, buy ice cream, settle down on a free bench with a wonderful view of the sea and the port. We sit and enjoy the warm weather, the sun, and all the beauty that surrounds us. We sat for a long time, rested, and the clock already shows 14-30. It's time to think about lunch. We left the visit to the aquarium for the future.
We return back (from the mountain it is quite easy to go), and we decide to arrange dinner in the hotel room. To do this, we again go to the supermarket in the Arena.
About this shopping center it is necessary to write separately. There were two bullfighting arenas in Barcelona, the old one in the Plaza de Españ a and the new one called "Sport" and then "Monumental". So, in the old arena, the fights were stopped back in 1977.
And at the arena "Monumental" the last bullfight was held on September 5.2011. Bullfighting is now banned in Catalonia. For how long is the question. There has already been a movement to repeal this law.
They decided to rebuild the old arena into a shopping center, but there was not enough money for this, so the reconstruction dragged on for a long time. And only on March 25.2011, the Arena shopping center was opened. Outside, the facade of the Arena remained intact, but inside it is very beautiful and original. Six floors in a circle are filled with boutiques, restaurants, etc. And on the roof there is an excellent observation deck, and also restaurants. You can go up to the roof by an external elevator for 1 euro, or you can go up on an escalator inside, from floor to floor, for free. We took the escalator up there. As for me, the escalator is safer and more interesting.
So we again went to the Arena supermarket to buy groceries not only for lunch, but for the next two days.
After all, according to the program, tomorrow we will move to Madrid, and there we took all the electives offered, and we simply won’t have time to look for food outlets.
We buy two sticks of smoked sausage for 3 euros per piece. weighing 0.5 kg, on stock. At first we thought that we made a mistake in the price, I went to the cashier to clarify, and they said that everything was correct. Then we thought that it was some kind of low-grade sausage, but decided that we were taking it for a sample, where ours did not disappear. It turned out to be an excellent natural sausage, and even with red paprika spice, but not too spicy. For me, we separately take several vacuum packs of boiled ham, fresh vegetables, and bananas and delicious large purple grapes from fruits. And, of course, red wine and beer. All this is loaded into the refrigerator in the room.
Our lunch was delicious and nutritious. After dinner, we felt sleepy, and we took a little nap.
Once again we were pleased with the location of the hotel so close to Plaza Españ a.
At 17 o'clock she pushed her husband aside, saying: "There is nothing to sleep, let's go for a walk, because we have not yet climbed to the roof of the Arena. "
Outside, the sun is still shining with might and main. On the way to the Arena, I pass by a small shoe store, I decided to look in there, to see what they sell there. And there are two Chinese women working there, but I know a few phrases in English, and they understood me. I asked for white moccasins to try on, they were all different styles, but at the same price of 10 euros.
I didn't take a lot of shoes with me, only boots and sports shoes, and here in Spain it was so hot that sandals would have been just right. So they brought me several pairs to try on, and I chose one of them and put it on right away, and put my sports shoes in a box and gave it to my husband in a bag. And it's good that I bought them, I went out in them everywhere on all excursions, and my legs did not get tired at all.
This is how we go up to the roof of the Arena in a new outfit, walk in a circle there and admire the surrounding views. From here, as in the palm of your hand, you can see the fountains. But it's still early and light, they will turn on only at 19 o'clock. There is still half an hour left, but we want to see the work begin from here from the roof, so we decided to wait here.
While we are going down to the store, I went to a women's clothing boutique, and even took summer trousers and a bat shirt for trying on. But the trousers didn’t fit me, and I didn’t buy a batch file, I wanted to have a set. So half an hour passed unnoticed during the fitting, and here we are again on the roof of the Arena, and at this moment the fountains begin to work.
You can’t hear music here, and it’s still light, so you can’t see the backlight yet, but the spectacle from here is very beautiful. The husband shoots a small video film, a few photos in the background, and we go down and go there to the fountains. By the time we reached it, it was already dark, and now the fountains sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow.
And there are a lot of people, and everyone is trying to get closer to the fountains. We also do not lag behind, we find a convenient place, and the husband starts filming. Filmed a 10 minute video. Now we are watching these videos at home, and we want to go back there again.
After the restoration, the fountains became even more powerful and more beautiful, and most importantly, there were no fences, you could come up and sit on the side of the fountain to take a photo.
We see these fountains for the second time, and we never cease to admire them. After standing there until 21:00, we return to the hotel. To the accompaniment of the recorded videos and the impressions received, we again have dinner in the room, and we are already getting ready to meet with a part of Spain that is still unfamiliar to us.
Tomorrow we are going to Madrid.
