June 18 Day 5 Barcelona

We woke up this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to hike up the mountain to a city  and Guadi site, Park Güell. This was the site in the early 1900's where architect Antonio Gaudi was asked by a wealthy patron, Eusebi Güell, to create a gated community for nouveau riche Barcelonans to live overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean. He designed this fanciful amazing place with Hansel and Gretel cottages, the world’s largest park bench, and lots and lots of fanciful mosaics and other interesting carvings and walkways. From an article about the park:

“The idea was to build an urbanization for rich families in a healthy environment that featured beautiful views. The work began in 1900 and ended in 1914. They began to understand that its remoteness from the city and abruptness of the terrain not only made it difficult to construct, but also to connect with Barcelona. Thus, upon the death of Eusebi Güell, his heirs offered it to the Barcelona City Council, who acquired it in 1922 and opened it to the public four years later.” (If you want to find out more about this amazing park, take a look at this article. https://www.barcelonacheckin.com/en/r/barcelona_tourism_guide/articles/all-about-park-guell  )

We decided to walk about a mile and a half all uphill to this park overlooking the city. The walk was at first lovely through interesting streets in our neighborhood we stopped in admired interesting doors and balconies and tried to figure out what some of the little shops were. Eventually, the climb got much more intense, ending with a series of very steep stairs. We could’ve taken a bus or a metro, but we were determined we would walk.

Once we finally got to the top, we were pleased to be able to use our already reserved tickets to immediately get into the part of this site that was the fee-paying area. Even though we were a half an hour earlier than our ticket read, we were able to walk right in. The place was already crawling with tourists. This was a very popular site for tour groups, and people wanting to catch interesting photos. The most famous figure was the mosaic dragon.  This captures the city's fascination with dragons and the encounter of St. George and the dragon.

The crowds cut down our enjoyment somewhat. But, we truly did enjoy the dragon or possibly salamander statue, the interesting houses, and the opportunity to get up really close to see some of these mosaics. The mosaics were primarily made with broken pottery plates and glass, using a techniques called Trendacís. The pieces are not smashed more broken in pieces and chunks. The effect was stunning. We were pleased to be there in the morning with the best light. We wandered around gazing at the art, and imagining the frustration of these two men who had created this amazing place, that they never sold even one unit. It was a failure as a gated community. Both men actually ended up living there for nearly the rest of their lives. In the view was stunning.

After a while, we walked out of the crowded the area, into the larger public park in which this was located. We got more beautiful views, and had opportunities to experience the quiet of the green in the hills. And, we eventually found a lovely picnic area where we sat down and ate our yogurt, bread, and cheese and just enjoyed the lovely morning. After about 2 1/2 hours, we both agreed we were ready to wrap it up and walk back down the hill. This time, we skipped the stairs and went on a more gentle road. The walk back to our apartment was much quicker than the walk up. Altogether we walked about 3 miles and we’re pleased to get back to our apartment around noon, where we laid down to take a little siesta. When we woke up, we were shocked to find that we had slept over 3 1/2 hours. Perhaps we’re still a little bit tired. Lunch was bowls of breakfast cereal. It’s nice to have a refrigerator in our apartment. And it’s nice to have a bed to rest on.

At 6 o’clock we loaded up our pack and headed back into the old town for a flamenco concert. Because we were in Spain, it just seems like we should see and hear flamenco… But it sure can be pricey! Some of the shows included an all you can eat buffet and some even included all you can drink of wine, champagne and beer. Neither of us were very interested in eating and drinking that much! Patti did some research and found a small intimate place in the Gothic District that offered lower-cost flamenco. We bought the cheapest tickets which stated the seats were back middle seats. When we arrived, after having followed fairly convoluted walking directions, we were surprised when we were ushered into the second row with our cheap tickets. It was only one room row in front of us and we were able to see in here really well. The show was obviously not the top performers. It was a smaller venue, but we got a good flavor of authentic Spanish flamenco. We were a little frustrated, that little lighting was so dark so it was hard to get good photos. But, flamenco was heard and experienced.

We then wondered around the area, going through crazy twisty small alleyways and streets. We saw everything from the Barcelona Rubber Duck Store to all kinds of different touristy shops to the Amsterdam Marijuana Shop and lots and lots of bars and restaurants. We picked up a little hot dinner at one cafe just so they were closing so we took it "to go". We sat on the street and watched passersby as we ate our dinner. We decided to take advantage of our metro pass and ride back up before our feet got too tired. As we walked back, we enjoyed the sights and sounds of the city of Barcelona. As we were coming into our apartment building, a guy came right behind us, and as we chatted we found out he was from Minnesota. What a small world.  That’s where Patti’s family still lives, and where Patti and Dick met. We chatted exchanged information about Minnesota and Barcelona. There are always interesting travelers to meet when you’re on the road. Another great day!