Barcelona Day 1
After breakfast, I took a page from the Lonely Planet
Spain on a recommended day walking tour. The tour was supposed to last around 2 hours but it
took most of the day. The walking tour focused on the old city center and will bring you to most of the major attractions Barcelona has to offer. In the 3 mile tour, the highlights was the Mercat La Boqueria,
Palau Guell, the exterior of Barcelona Cathedral and the Picasso museum.
The Mercat La Boqueria was great, it was interesting to see what kind of produce and meats are avaliable. I'm a fan of mangos and tried some in the markets. It was suprisingly sweet. I say suprisingly because I haven't had good fruit except in Asia. I'm beginning to suspect that America just doesn't get good exotic fruits. I also scoped out the market for a vendor to buy Iberico pork to bring home. I've been eating Iberico pork all week and this was going to be my souvenir. :) I came across Mas Gourmet and decided this would be the place I would get ham before going home.
At Palau Guell, I was reminded that the architect, Antoni Gaudi, was frequently mentioned in How I Met Your Mother as Ted's inspiration. Inside, there is a video montage about the industrialist, Eusebi Guell, and the lengths he went in designing and crafting this house. The number of artisans required to work on this house is quite extensive as is the materials used in this house. You can tell that Guell was in the mercantile business with the amount of ivory, oak, and iron used in the house.
Next to the house, there are a
number of turkish/middle eastern take aways and all of them were excellent.
Cheap and easy to eat, I was reminded how much I enjoyed turkish food when I
went to Amsterdam.
The day was winding down so we hoofed it pretty quickly to Picasso Museum. Along the way to the museum, caught some exterior views of cathedrals. There are a large number of cathedrals in Seville and Barcelona. The religious influence is very strong here, at least architecturally. Unfortunately, the Cathedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulalia aka Barcelona Cathedral required a dress code that I didn't fit. I was only able to view the church from the outside. An impressive cathedral, I'm not religious but I certainly have enjoyed looking at these cathedrals.
At the museum, I found out that Picasso liked living in Barcelona for most of his life and had donated much of his work when he was still alive to the museum.
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| Starting point of the walking tour |
The Mercat La Boqueria was great, it was interesting to see what kind of produce and meats are avaliable. I'm a fan of mangos and tried some in the markets. It was suprisingly sweet. I say suprisingly because I haven't had good fruit except in Asia. I'm beginning to suspect that America just doesn't get good exotic fruits. I also scoped out the market for a vendor to buy Iberico pork to bring home. I've been eating Iberico pork all week and this was going to be my souvenir. :) I came across Mas Gourmet and decided this would be the place I would get ham before going home.
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| Yummy Iberico ham |
At Palau Guell, I was reminded that the architect, Antoni Gaudi, was frequently mentioned in How I Met Your Mother as Ted's inspiration. Inside, there is a video montage about the industrialist, Eusebi Guell, and the lengths he went in designing and crafting this house. The number of artisans required to work on this house is quite extensive as is the materials used in this house. You can tell that Guell was in the mercantile business with the amount of ivory, oak, and iron used in the house.
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| Palau Guell Front Entrance |
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| Barcelona Cathedral |
At the museum, I found out that Picasso liked living in Barcelona for most of his life and had donated much of his work when he was still alive to the museum.
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