First a bit of an introduction to the city. Barcelona is the capital of autonomous region of Catalonia, official language here is Catalan (all the signs are both in Spanish and in Catalan). Besides great architect Gaudi, this beautiful city is the birth place of Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Antoni Tapies. Pablo Picasso spent his formative years here and Pedro Almadovar is also from here.
As mentioned - had a whole day to look around in the city and no plans :) Oleg&co took us around, we started from Eixample, walked down to old town and finished up by the sea. First stop was Sagrada Familia - greatest work of Gaudi, building of this Neo-Gothic church started year 1882 and it is not expected to finish before 2026. Passed by Arc de Triomf and walked through beautiful Parc de la Ciutadella. Arrived at Barri Gotic or the Gothic Quarter which is the oldest part of the city, Romans founded new 'colonia' or a town here during reign of Augustus (27 BC - AD 14). Enjoyed wonderful tapas in one tiny eating place with cava and wine. Next headed to El Born, walked down La Rambla - definitely the most famous street in whole Spain, it is a lively street full of newsstands, caged bird and flower stalls, musicians and mime artists. Good thing about being taken around with half locals is that they know all sorts of nice local eating places - chilled with a big bucket of sangria just a block from La Rambla. Final destination was Port Vell area, beautiful seaside complex. As you can imagine, this all meant loots of walking :)
Barcelona is wonderful - city made for people. Streets are wide, buildings are all about the same height, architecture is fabulous and everything just looks pretty. Houses at the intersections are chamfered to allow the buildings to overlook the squares or junctions. Oldest part of the city has very narrow streets, but majority of the streets are wide and city planning has quite rigid structure - streets are strictly parallel and form even squares, there are just few diagonals running through the city.
Evening was topped of with visiting absinth bar (yeah) and dinner + wine at the apartment. Yet another long day was put behind.
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