Are you ready to get just a little bit acquainted with Barcelona? Well, then you're in the right place, as over the next few weeks I'm going to share with you quite a few posts about my recent stay in the city of Barcelona. I sure wish there had been a web site that had told me what I'm going to tell you! I spent hours doing research on line, which was certainly a big help, but once we arrived I felt totally clueless and even literally lost! Not to complain, figuring things out for ones self is also part of the adventure!
On our first day in Barcelona, we boarded the metro and headed into the center of town to the Placa De Catalunya, where there is a tourist information office and this beautiful fountain. I thought we'd take a leasurely stroll down the famous street Las Ramblas, and with a map in hand and some directions from the tourist information office, we set out to see the city. Only quite a bit later, and after lots of confusion on my part, did I realize that we weren't on Las Ramblas at all but rather on Passeig De Gracia!
Of course this really turned out to be for the best as we ended up having a great introduction to the city and some of it's architectural treasures.
A typical street corner on Passeig De Gracia
Love this mosaic, from the same building, that looks so contemporary but is actually something like 100 years old!
The Hotel Majestic, very appropriately named for a very majestic street!
There are amazing lamp posts with curvy mosaic benches, reminiscent of Gaudi, though designed by Pere Falques i Urpi in 1906, just as Gaudi was finishing his Casa Batillo and starting the construction of Casa Mila, both on Passeig de Gracia.
I had read about Casa Amattler, so I was surprised to come upon it........
but much more surprised to come upon Gaudi's Casa Batilo, since I thought we were on a different street altogether, silly me. Okay, I'll admit, I was a bit tired having not slept enough the night before.....you know I was trying to do research on Barcelona!
Love the juxtapositions of Casa Amattler and Casa Batilo. We didn't go inside Casa Batilo as there were crowds, it's a little expensive, and it just wasn't calling me. A bit of an oversight on my part, and now I'm trying to figure out when I can do a layover in Barcelona just to go into the city to visit Casa Batilo and go inside!
Many of the buildings have luxurious penthouses, as you can see.
And here's Casa Mila, another of Gaudi's masterpieces, which we fortunately went back to visit on our last morning in Barcelona. I can't believe that me, of all people, was about to miss going inside a Gaudi masterpiece. I think I got a bit thrown off track as I wasn't so attracted to his buildings from the outside. Fortunately we did go inside this one and it was one of the highlights of the trip. (A post on that to come!)
One of the modern buildings across the street from Casa Mila echoes Gaudi's work.
High end shopping often means amazingly creative window displays, such as this one for a handbag company.
A typically grand facade on Passeig De Gracia, a lovely street very worthy of an afternoon stroll anytime!
That's all for now, stay tuned for many more posts.....just gotta find the time to go through all those photos and pick the very best to share with you!
