La Sagrada Familia

We did go to La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona's famous cathedral - but before we got there we did a walking tour and wandered around the La Boqueria market.

The walking tour was excellent, hosted by a really experienced guy named Andy - like so many tour guides, he's originally from the UK. But unlike any I'd met before, he also had a degree in Art History. As a result, we got a very interesting and detailed account of a lot of relevant Barcelona history, as well as his insight into a whole lot of other relevant (and frequently amusing) stuff.

After that was done, we made away towards the La Boqueria market - and somewhere along the way it started raining. Only a little bit at first, but then it got very heavy. So, it was a good thing we had a market to wander around in for a few hours. We drank juice, ate empañadas and had a very good time.

Then it was time to get ourselves to La Sagrada Familia, which was far enough away that we had to take our first trip on the Barcelona metro system to get there.

After a somewhat annoying reminder that some metro stations don't have a way to get from one side of the tracks to the other - which you have to do if you've gone down the wrong set of stairs and find yourself facing the wrong direction - and that the tickets you bought won't work at the same stop a second time around, we bought more tickets, went down the the right stairs and made our way our way there.

By this time it was raining quite heavily - we'd brought umbrellas, unlike a lot of other people - and we then had to try and work out where to meet up for the guided tour we'd bought tickets for. After a lot of confusion, we got to the right place and waited to go. 

It turns out we hadn't chosen wisely. Our tour group was quite large and the tour guide was not a great (or loud) speaker; the tour description said we'd get earpieces to hear the commentary, but those didn't appear. Part of the ticket included access to the towers, but because of the rain they were closed. As a result the tour itself was almost entirely pointless beyond allowing us faster entry via the group entrance. We got a lot more out of our wandering around by ourselves after the tour had finished. But it's still an astonishing building, and I'm glad we went.

After that it was back on the metro and to our hotel, where we dropped off our stuff and headed out again to find somewhere to eat (we'd gotten two recommendations for the same place and it wasn't all the far away) so we decided that's where we'd go. And it was a good choice, since it was very authentic and the food was excellent - though we probably won't be picking the six random croquettes option again, as there was a bit more seafood than I'd prefer, and one made with squid and squid ink that neither of us enjoyed much.

And that was our first full day - in both senses of the expression - in Barcelona.

Photos!

I don't really know what this is, but I couldn't not take a picture.

Our walking tour group with guide Andy.

We went to an amazing art gallery, Base Elements; most of the work comes from street artists. The owner both looked and sounded like Edward Norton. 

La Boqueria.

La Sagrada Familia

There's just so much detail on the outside. It'd take me way too much time to go into it, but the architect (Antoni Gaudi; his stuff is everywhere in Barcelona, and we're going to more places he designed while we're here) was a Freemason and into mysticism, so a lot of it is a) deeply symbolic and b) weird as shit. Let's just say Dan Brown would have a field day if he based a book on this place.

Full disclosure: I don't actually like it all that much. Other people have described it as looking like a melted candle, and I think that's fairly accurate. But that doesn't mean I'm not impressed by the sheer scale.

Dinner at La Bodega d'en Rafel. 

A wee bus. There are lots of them running around Barcelona.