Barcelona

I have just returned from my trip with friends to Barcelona. Despite the fact that we got caught in a torrential thunderstorm within a couple of hours of arriving and managed to lose two of our group on the five minute walk between the metro and the hotel, the rest of the holiday was fairly successful! I can't believe how much walking we did though. It is easy to get caught up in the maze of streets in the old part of the city- each way you turn there is something different to see and some of the architecture is fantastic.

We spent a lot of time walking up and down La Rambla which in itself is a beautiful area. The street is lined with a variety of stalls, street sellers, musicians and performers, some quite bizarre. I had been warned before going that La Rambla is a haven for pickpockets, drug pushers and prostitutes but none of this was particularly evident, even at night. In contrast to the streets back home at night, it was actually very calm and civilised and I can't remember seeing anyone being drunken and loutish; perhaps this was due to the physical presence of police on the streets? There were one or two of the quieter, darker streets which at night I felt a little less happy to be down, but on the whole I felt perfectly safe.

La Placa Reial, which was just off La Rambla, was bursting with life both during the day and at night. The large square is home to a fountain, palm trees and wrought-iron lamp-posts designed by Gaudi, and by day there are green parrots flying around. We ate here one night at one of the restaurants that surround the square. As far as eating is concerned in Barcelona there is certainly no shortage of eating establishments and, wherever you go at night, staff from the restaurants are outside trying to draw you in. We ate fairly well all week (and only nearly fell out once whilst trying to agree on where to eat!) and between the seven of us only had one or two less enjoyable meals. Just be careful when ordering fish- one of our friends had a dish one lunchtime which turned out to be raw cod!

We spent a morning at La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished life work. For many years the temple remained as it was when Gaudi died but in the 1950s work began again, based on the very few plans left behind by Gaudi. The building of the western facade and towers has caused controversy- some believe the temple should have been left unfinished and the new build is not to everyone's taste. I personally am in agreement; I much prefer the original facade and towers, though the whole building is nothing less than spectacular. We queued for around an hour and a half for the lift to ascend the temple which was a little frustrating but well worth the wait as the views across Barcelona from the top were stunning (despite the fact that my legs turned to jelly and I couldn't quite muster the courage to go too near the edge!). Then came the long descent from the tower down spiral staircases. These at first were fully enclosed but then came the staircase which, although stunning to look down to see the shell-like effect (not that I was too keen to look down), was completley open on one side- I did not like it one bit! I went down the first part on my bottom, but then, when the queues of people waiting to get down behind me started to get a little less patient, I went down the rest of the staircase sideways gripping onto the handrail for dear life- I am not good with heights! My legs were a little wobbly for about an hour afterwards.

Gaudi's works are spread out across the city. We didn't see them all but La Pedrera and Casa Batllo were fantastic works of architecture and Casa Batllo was stunning when lit up at night. Thursday afternoon was spent at Parc Guell, an unfinished garden city and another Gaudi project. Again, there were amazing views from the top of the park across the city (we had to ascend the hill to the park on around half a dozen escalators!). The park itself reminded me of North Wales' Portmeirion- it was filled with an array of bizarre but stunning works of art, most notably two gingerbread pavillions, Hypostyle Hall (a forest of columns) with its unique ceramic ceiling, an undulating bench covered by a ceramic collage and, of course, the multi-coloured ceramic saurian.

We escaped the hustle and bustle of the city on Wednesday to visit the coast. A forty minute train journey took us to Sitges and we spent the day ambling around the town, walked along the promenade and had a paddle in the sea! It was in Sitges that I had my most scary encounter of the holiday. Walking down one of the streets we passed a small art shop- I looked through the door and commented to one of my friends that I quite liked one of the pictures. We continued down the street when suddenly this Spanish woman appeared at my side ranting at me in Spanish (my Spanish is not great and I hadn't a clue what she was saying)- I thought at first that she was trying to sell me something but she was getting increasingly aggressive. We just kept on walking (fast!) and in the end she got called back by a man from the shop at which point her departing words were "bitch, arsehole"! Perhaps if she had demonstrated her english language skills a little sooner I would have understood what she was angry about! Between us though we managed to piece together that she thought that I had been taking photos of her artwork, and I suddenly realised that when I had pointed to the picture I had quite liked, I had my camera in my hand. I didn't make that mistake again! Apart from that encounter, it was a nice, relaxing day and the sun shone for the first time in three days of being in Spain.
One thing that did impress me about Barcelona was the public transport system. It was clean, efficient, cheap and made getting around the city very easy. For just £7 we got a ticket that entitled us to ten journeys on the train or metro, which included a thirty minute train journey from the airport. It puts our transport system to shame. Another thing I noticed was how clean the streets were- there was practically no litter and the street cleaners were out every night sweeping the streets. Quite bizarrely,any graffiti, seemed only to be on shutters and boarding, with none evident on any buildings.
So, what was my overall opinion of Barcelona and my first holiday abroad in 17 years? I had a fantastic time. The aeroplane journey was nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be and spending the week with my friends was fab. Barcelona is a beautiful city but I felt there just wasn't enough time to see everything. Perhaps a return trip in the future will be on the cards.

La Placa Reial

La Rambla de Catalunya

Street musicians