After our failure to get into Park Güell because of a lack of tickets yesterday, we made sure we had them for today. But we had another Gaudi creation to look at before we got there: Casa Batlló, which is a house in pretty much the middle of Barcelona. Handily, it was close enough to our hotel that we could walk to get there.
We had definitely bought tickets to this place, because you had to. And they weren't cheap. But it is pretty impressive; I'm much more inclined towards Gaudi's style when it's on a smaller scale and for something like a house, rather than a monstrous (in both senses of the word) cathedral. So we had a good time there wandering around; the pics below will give you an idea of what it's like.
After that we stopped for coffee and a bathroom break, and then we set off to try for a second time to get into Park Güell. This time we were able to get in, even though it was after another quite steep ascent. But we got there. It turned out to be much bigger than we'd anticipated, so we spent more time there than we thought we would - but that's not a bad thing. Some of it was great but a lot was of the same kind of rough-looking stonework that I'd disliked about La Sagrada Familia.
Once we were done there we decided we wanted a slushie from the place we'd seen the day before, though that did mean a bit of a trek back through parts of the park we'd already seen. But it was worth it; those slushies were great after a few hours of wandering around in the heat and humidity.
Next stop was the beach, since we hadn't managed to go - and Barcelona is quite famous for its beaches. This meant a fair bit of travel, as we were quite a ways away; conveniently, though, the exit we'd taken to get the slushies was close to a stop for the exact bus line that would take us where we wanted to go - pretty handy, even though it was a whole 18 stops away. But we weren't pressed for time, and it was nice to just sit in an airconditioned bus for three quarters of an hour.
We wandered around the beach for a few hours and, since it's what we'd do if we were in Australia, we found a place that had fish & chips on the menu and had dinner. Then we were back on the metro to get to the hotel.
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