Barcelona through my eyes...(1)
Barcelona, part 1.
Well, we are finally in Barcelona. For 2 years I kept this city on a short leash, collecting information, but I still couldn’t get there. First impressions while riding in a taxi: sunny, bright, spacious, crowded and very busy. So, the cruise is over, ahead of 3 days in Barcelona. The taxi driver brought us to the Pension Mihlton Barcelona hotel, the review will be later separately.
1. Excursions of the first day.
Excursions on Busturistic are planned for the first day along two routes: red and blue lines. I bought tickets online with a discount here on this site:
https://www. barcelona busturistic. cat/de/venda-de-titols
It takes 7-10 minutes to walk from the hotel to the nearest Busturistic stop. First, they took the red line, gave the conductor / escort our electronic tickets, which he could not figure out for a long time. He called somewhere several times, as a result, after the fourth stop, he printed tickets for us, on which the cost was 0.00 euros in the line.
The 1st stop we got off at was MNAC, the Museum of Catalan Fine Art, which is located in a picturesque corner of Barcelona - in the National Palace at the foot of Montjuic. It was Monday, the museum was closed, but to be honest, we were not going to visit it on our first visit. We walked there, admired the unusually beautiful views of Plaza de Españ a, the city as a whole, walked around and continued our tour further. The day was sunny, warm, we definitely liked Barcelona.
2nd stop - Mirador de Colom
"A 60-meter monument to Christopher Columbus, installed at the end of La Rambla, on Portal de la Pau, which means "Gate of the World. " The monument rises above the city center and the old port, to which the discoverer of America returned after his first famous swimming. " (from internet)
At the foot of the monument there are 8 huge lions, at the very top there is a bronze statue of Columbus, in one hand he holds a scroll, and with the other he points to the sea. The monument, of course, is very interesting, there are many statues, four of them, for example, represent the four regions of Spain: Catalonia, Leon, Aragon and Castile. In addition, there are medallions with portraits of historical figures, including portraits of Isabella and Ferdinand, as well as eight coats of arms of cities visited by Columbus.
In addition to Barcelona, a monument to Columbus is also installed in other port cities in Spain and Italy.
Great place, near the sea and everything is so sunny, bright. When I looked up at the monument, I could not see people somewhere on the observation deck. And only after taking the elevator up there, it became clear why no one was visible from the ground, because the entire narrow observation deck was glazed. But the views from it to the city, the sea are really amazing.
This is what beauty will be here in spring and summer ...
Tickets were bought using a discount coupon from a book with Busturistic, how much it costs, I don’t remember, the ticket has not been preserved, but not expensive. Of course, this observation deck is cramped, but we were lucky, there were few people, so we opened every window and photographed the city from different angles.
There, in the distance, our beautiful Splendida is still standing in the port. On this day it was quite sunny and not very windy, the old cable car is visible above the port, it works, red cabins flash back and forth.
And the view of the port and the Maremagnum shopping center! The views are mesmerizing! And without saying a word, my husband and I exclaimed almost in one voice: we must definitely come here in the spring or summer.
When we went down, we walked to Maremagnum, no, not shopping, I just wanted to walk along this unusual bridge over the sea. I really wanted to stay here longer, but at the same time I wanted to see the rest of the city.
So we get back on the bus and drive on. The day is drawing to a close, the wind has appeared, it is getting colder.
Our 3rd stop is Ciudadela Park.
We get off at the stop, which is called that, but there is no park anywhere to be seen. We ask passers-by, they answer: go straight through the houses, then to the left, straight, then a little to the right, along the wall and somewhere there is a park ...We walked, walked, walked, we don’t see the park, we ask again, again they show the way. We came, we see the entrance with the ticket office, and it turns out to be a zoo. We did not plan to visit it, at the box office they asked, but where is the park, finally? Yes, it’s not far, they say, that’s right along the wall, as it ends, to the left and there will be an entrance. And straight along the wall - it's almost 2 tram stops. Well, it was not in vain that we got off the bus in order to return not salty slurped. They came, they found, they looked. Of course, we didn’t go around the whole park, the park is very large, and in winter the impressions are completely different, and the fountains do not work, and the trees are without leaves.
Walk along the linden alley during the flowering of the linden, wow! I love how linden smells during flowering.
At the very end there is another exit / entrance, but where does it go there? We don't know the city. We decided not to risk it and went back.
The cascading Monumental Fountain, decorated with a sculptural ensemble with a bronze Aurora on top, is certainly impressive, if only it was still working ...A large area of the park is occupied by a zoo, in addition there are ponds, museums, and the building of the Parliament of Catalonia is also located.
We didn’t go all the way back on foot, we reached the tram stop, bought 2 T-10 tickets for the first zone with a credit card, and we drove through 1 stop. I want to say that going to this park from the Busturistic stop is not very convenient, and it seemed to us a bit far. Surely some kind of public transport approaches the entrance to this park, it is better to get on it so as not to waste time wandering.
Moreover, we did not enter from the main entrance. When we entered the park and immediately to the right there was a sculptural composition with a fountain. Walking through the park, we later found the main entrance and all the alleys ...but I don’t know which street it goes on. But there was no such thing as getting off at this stop Parc de la Ciutadella -Zoo, and immediately before your eyes the entrance to the park.
4 stop - Pla? a de Catalunya.
We got to Plaza Catalunya, to the very center of the city, changed to another Busturistic, which goes along the blue line. But it was already five in the evening. If we traveled on the first bus on the second floor, then on this one after three stops we went down: the wind became stronger and it became much colder.
I didn’t have the strength to continue the trip, I had to urgently have something to eat. We got off at the Sagrada Familia stop, looked at the unfinished work of Gaudi from the side and, turning the corner, landed in the first restaurant we came across. I don’t see the name on the check, only this: Mallorca, 420.08013 Barcelona, Spanien (Eixample).
The restaurant is small with a rather limited selection of food and the prices are quite expensive. But then we did not look for anything, we had a bite to eat here.
Continuing our further trip, we didn’t take a single photo: it was impossible to sit on the second floor of the bus, it became even colder, and nothing could be photographed through the windows of the first floor, which were used for advertising. The route is interesting too. It got dark, Barcelona sparkled with multi-colored night lights. Even the little we could see from the first floor windows was beautiful. Despite the wind and cold, the roof on the 2nd floor was not stretched, and no matter how gorgeous the views of Barcelona at night through the large panoramic windows, one can only imagine.
I remembered the same evening tour of Dresden. We specially took in the evening to admire the city at night.
But there the roof was stretched, it was warm in the bus, one continuous pleasure, which in this case cannot be said about a similar bus in Barcelona.
And, summing up the results of the first day, we came to the conclusion that we had a lot of 2 survey buses in one day, given the fact that it gets dark very early and it also gets cold early, the second route, unfortunately, was almost mediocre.
2. The second day in Barcelona is Gaudí 's day.
Sagrada Familia
We went there early in the morning, because the time of our visit was from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning. I bought tickets in advance on the Internet, entrance to the basilica + Audio-guides. Ticket price 19.30 euros / person. Tickets were printed at home, like all other tickets that were ordered online.
http://www. sagradafamilia. cat/sf-eng/docs_serveis/infoTarifesOnline. php
We got to the metro very easily and quickly, leaving which, already at 9 in the morning, we saw a queue, the end of which was not visible, it went somewhere behind the building.
We went forward to the main entrance, where the ticket offices were, and there we saw another entrance on the right, the queue for which was 5-6 people. And here we have the grandiose construction of Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia, the facade of the Nativity. It makes no sense to write about the author and his project for the thousandth time, everything has already been described. I will show 3 facades at once: fragments of the Nativity facade, which tells us about the earthly life of Christ, fragments of the Passion facade, which tells about the atoning sacrifices of Jesus Christ, suffering, torment and his death on the cross, and fragments of the Glory facade, which symbolizes the path of spiritual rebirth and the choice between good and evil and which will also have 4 towers.
The cathedral inside, of course, is not very ordinary, however, as well as outside. Not ordinary, very unusual, peculiar, beautiful, yes, but we were not particularly impressed, the heart did not stop, AH! didn't happen. I do not know why.
For me, it is more associated with an attraction for tourists, but it doesn’t think about God in any way. It looks like a huge sand castle with different figures ...It's a pity that we will never know how it would look exactly according to Gaudí 's plan.
This is one of those rare cases when this building on postcards and photographs (+ photoshop) looks much more attractive and beautiful than in reality.
The cathedral is active - In 2010, the temple was consecrated by Benedict 16, and now services are held in it. But we did not get to the service, and this action in this cathedral does not even seem to me.
The whole audio guide was not heard, a lot of information, a lot of very small details that are forgotten after 5 minutes.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon, we got out of there and hurried to the metro, because at 14:00 we had bought tickets to Park Gü ell. One last look at the Sagrada Familia...and then near the metro I saw the familiar name Lactuca.
I remembered that I read somewhere that you can have a quick and inexpensive lunch there. In fact, there were few people, and the hall was very large, free. As for food, well, when you're in a hurry, you can have lunch there once or twice. Very large selection of salads, delicious pizza, tangerines are very sweet, juicy...but the food is certainly not gourmet.
Park G? ell.
We take the metro, drive 1 stop, change to the yellow line L4, drive 1 more stop to the Joanic metro, get off, take bus number 116 and get to the very central entrance of the park. It is impossible to pass the stop, because there are already a lot of people here and the entrance to the park is visible from the bus window. Very convenient, everything is simple and fast. Tickets were purchased in advance for 7.00 euros/person. Online:
http://www. parkguell. cat/en/buy-tickets/individual-purchase/
Park Gü ell is another masterpiece by Antoni Gaudi, which he created for 14 years at the beginning of the last century.
The idea of creating the park belonged to the Catalan industrialist, philanthropist and politician, Gaudí 's longtime patron Eusebio Gü ell, after whom this park was later named. It was planned to build 40 or 60 villas for rich, noble citizens, but only 3 houses were built. Gaudi himself lived in one of them until the end of his life, now there is a museum.
"At the entrance to the park from Olot Street, guests are greeted by two fabulous "gingerbread" houses, one of which is crowned with a cross, and the other with a mushroom. After entering, an amazing curved staircase begins with small fountains, the coat of arms of Catalonia, animal figures, the most famous of which is multi-colored mosaic dragon, which has already become one of the symbols of Barcelona. " (from the Internet)
At the entrance to the park, they give a brochure with a plan and a brief description of the paid part of the park.
Now there is a souvenir kiosk in the left house, and we wanted to see the right house of Casa del Guarda, which today belongs to the Historical Museum of Barcelona, to go inside, but the line came from somewhere. After standing in it for about 15 minutes almost in place, without moving, we decided that we would come here later, maybe there would be fewer people, but then we got so drunk that we left the paid zone of the park and didn’t want to go back. On this sunny day, there were a lot of people walking here, it was almost impossible to photograph anything so that someone would not interfere, and I don’t really like photographs with people, so I couldn’t shoot the entire staircase.
The park is very beautiful, special, there is nothing to even compare with, it is not like any other, it has a zest, and its paid part is special, just some kind of fabulous. At the top of the park G? ell has a large observation deck with continuous colored mosaic benches.
On the monumental staircase, decorated with sculptures of animals, covered with mosaics, we climb to this platform.
The large observation deck-square, Plaza de la Naturaleza, also called the Griechisches Theater or Theater der Natur, was originally intended for various open-air events. And now tourists just walk along it. This site offers a wonderful view of the park, the houses, Barcelona. We couldn’t leave for a long time, we photographed everything for the fifteenth time, sat, sunbathed and went on walking along the alleys and other secluded corners of this wonderful park.
There were a lot of people walking in the park. And since the park is multi-level, cyclists also met on the upper paths, musicians played on a semicircular platform above the cliff, and souvenirs are sold on all bridges and crossings, laid out right on the floor. Didn't like anything, didn't buy anything here.
And different city landscapes open from different levels.
It’s only the beginning of February, and mimosa has already begun to bloom, and not only mimosa, but also irises, and here are some other flowers. Well, it's spring. This is the highest path of the park, private properties are already higher, so it was not possible to get closer to the mimosa.
This, of course, was already a free part of the park, but it is no less beautiful. We leave through some gates, intuitively figure out where to go, because there is no one to ask, we go alone along the street. And then I remember all the "fears" about Barcelona described on the forum: the bag was taken away, the camera was torn off, they were hit on the head ...I tell my husband what could happen to us in such a place. And he only smiles, he doesn’t even have the thought that I can speak seriously.
Leaving the park through this gate, we, of course, "outwitted" ourselves.
Well, we didn’t want to return to the main entrance, despite the fact that I had written out in advance all possible modes of transport, how to go back from the park to Plaza Catalunya. I suddenly wanted to go the other way, to see Barcelona from different angles. And now our path lay nowhere else but to the Vallcarca metro, if I'm not mistaken, descending down a very long staircase. This is not the very beginning of the descent, for some time we have already been walking along it, and then I thought that this staircase should be shown on the forum, it is not the best option to get to / from the park in this way. Of course, to go down, not to go up, but nevertheless time was lost. The only “consolation” was that we were not the only smart ones who walked along this staircase, that they met other tourists who were walking with maps in their hands, and they had to climb it up to the park.
And here we are in Plaza Catalunya.
I like this place, joyful, lively, everyone is in a hurry somewhere or not in a hurry, like us, they just sat down on a bench to rest. And whoever is not here: tourists with suitcases / cameras / maps, mothers with children, beggars, students, sellers ...once again I catch myself thinking that I like Barcelona, I definitely like it.
After a bit of shopping and buying gifts, we head to the hotel. Shall we go down the Passeig de Gr? cia, the most beautiful boulevard of the L'Eixample district, which starts from the square. A house with orange tiled towers, Cases Rocamora, Antony Rocamora's house, is not ordinary, however, like everything else in Barcelona.
Other houses on this boulevard are also one more interesting than the other.
To be continued.
