31 July 2006: We woke up at 8:00am. We decide to get up early since at the afternoon we have scheduled to visit the Barcelona’s sights. Barcelona is the second biggest town of Spain and the capital of Catalonia and has many sights. The town is located 18km from our hotel. We followed the national road, which had no tolls, towards Barcelona. We find some traffic only at the entrance of the town. At some moment we are on Avg. Meridiana and I reprogram my GPS device to lead us in the centre of the town, where the most sights are located.
Ploumisti was my co-pilot and helped me with the navigation so we reached the Piaca de Catalunya easily. At its perimeter there are many motorcycles parked and many signs indicating that the parking was free. We park our motorcycle and we open our tourist guides and the GPS in order to find the footway La Rambla.
La Rambla is a trade, tourist resort which reminds the Ermou road in Athens. There were many people at the place and big trees provided shadow, which made our walking more comfortable since the temperature was high. On the pedestrian zone there are kiosks with souvenirs, restaurants and cafes as well as artists who pose as famous or imaginary persons. They are dressed with costumes and sometimes make you think that they are statues. These people try to make their living by the tourist’s donations who visit the town. We are at the beginning of our tour so we decide to drink a coffee and eat tortillas, the local omelette.
Then, we are walking in parallel with the pedestrian street, watching the buildings, the people and the sores. We pass in front of a pharmacy which as we read in our guide because of its architectural design looks surrealistic… We continue our walking, up to a point and turn left entering some alleys which lead at Bari Gotic. Bari Gotic is a small area build on gothic style. There are high house build of stones and separated by narrow alleys. Wandering among these alleys we reach at the cathedral Santa Eulalia. This is a cathedral with a gothic rhythm, rocklike and tall. We reach the entrance which is located next to the cathedral and leads to an internal courtyard, which reminds a palace, with phoenixes, a small lake with ducks and goldfishes. In the perimeter there are alcoves on the walls were you see statues of various holly men. At the one of the many corners there is the entrance which leads to the interior temple. Towering! We took some pictures and we left from the way we entered.
Our next destination was La Ribera. It is a magnificent big park where the house of Parliament is located. The building is beautiful with waterfalls, and many other sights inside a verdurous environment which has man kinds of trees, flowers, technical made small lakes, alleys for walking and resting.
We live behind us La Ribera on the way to the arch which lies a little further. Thereinafter we move to the Chinese area which is at the west side of La Rambla where you can find the centre of the town’s night life. However, at the time we visit it there was nothing to remind the night life. Nevertheless, we had the chance to visit a local market, similar to Varvakios in Athens, where you can find anything you want!!!
We rest there for a while, and decide to visit Pasag de Gracia, a road where are located buildings with a surrealistic architecture, made by Gaudi. Gaudi, is a famous artist born in Barcelona and creator of many buildings and other constructions with a unique style. On of the famous buildings is tha temple of La Sagrada Familia. This temple is the trademark of Barcelona, as quoted in many tourist guides. Its particular gothic architecture, inspired by Gaudi, impresses and the sternest visitor. By paying the amount of 5 Euros you can visit the interior of the temple – which is under construction- where you will find a museum with photographic material from the beginning of its construction and information about the architect. If you are patient enough to queue you can go at highest levels of the temple.
It’s been already afternoon and we move to Parc Guell, which is located at the top of a hill where you can see a panoramic view of the town. This park was a property of a wealth person who had asked from Gaudi to decorate. The decoration is impressive as well as the things that you can see. The entrance to the park is free and there is also a cafeteria. Also here you can see some kind of trees, while the phoenixes reminded more exotic places. Although it is far away from the centre do not hesitate to visit it.
Before our returning to the hotel, we decided to visit the breakwater of the town which lies at the end of La Rambla and leads to the sea. There, there is a mall with many stores and restaurants. Also there it is located the Columbus statue which, according to the tourist guide, shows the countries that he discovered. The time is almost 21:00pm and many people have come to the area since it is a good place to relax and enjoy your time. We decided to stay there for a while to relax and we conclude in the fact that if one wants to visit Barcelona needs at least 4 to 5 days to see the whole of it. We saw only a small segment of the town...