Look at this happy lobster!
On our first full day in Barcelona we did a free walking tour. I have to say, while these free walking tours can be kind of exhausting, it really is a great way to learn some of the secrets of the city that you wouldn't know from walking around on your own!
We started off here with some Columbus history, as the mahogany roof from this building was one of the results of Columbus's voyage to the New World (although most of his riches went to Madrid).
This is the cathedral of Barcelona, which has some important significance to the city. Currently, Spain is a predominantly Catholic, but when the Romans overtook modern day Spain during roughly 200CE/AD, Christianity was outlawed, since the Romans had their own gods and goddesses. The church was built in 1339 and officially named The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. It was named after Eulalia, who was a 13 year old Catholic girl who had lived outside of Barcelona during the time of the Romans. Since all of the Christians had been removed from the city center, the Christian community selected Eulalia to try to make peace with the Romans. Unfortunately, the Romans were not happy to see her, so they punished her by putting her into a barrel full of broken glass, knives, and anything sharp, and they rolled her down the nearby mountains. After they had rolled her down the mountain, they opened up the barrel, asked her if she wanted to give up her faith, and when she didn't, they rolled her down the mountain again. Ultimately, she never gave up her faith, and they rolled her down a total of 13 times. She did remain alive at the end of this, so they ended up beheading her. However, when the Romans did switch over to Christianity centuries later, they made Eulalia a Saint and named the cathedral after her. Definitely a morbid story, but not too surprisingly since it is the Romans we are talking about. There are currently 13 geese in the Cathedral to honor the 13 years of Eulalia's life.
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While this illustration might not look too fancy, it was actually done by Pablo Picasso! His rationale for having a more "childlike" approach in the artwork? He stated that since his father was an artist, even as a child he was forced to draw like an adult, so when he was an adult, he wanted to draw like a child.
This is one of the Catalonia flags that supports the independence movement of Catalonia from Spain. Catalonians are very passionate about wanting to break away from Spain and have been for a very long time.
One of the Barcelona traditions is to build really tall human pyramids. This is not my photo, but it is a picture of how tall these pyramids get. It is crazy to me! I don't have a fear of heights, but I would be incredibly nervous to be a part of this!
This sculpture was made to remember the tallest human tower, and also to honor several of those who have died from difficulties with the pyramids over the years. They do now require the top person to wear a helmet because of some of these deaths.
This was some graffiti we found that states "Killing America one Happy Meal at a time". Very interesting, and sadly, not too far from the truth. :(
After our walking tour, we went to Vegetalia, a vegetarian restaurant, for lunch, and had the yummy 3-course meal lunch special! We were able to choose an appetizer, an entrée, and dessert! Some of our favorites included the hummus with crispy flatbreads, watermelon gazpacho, and veggie burger patties with rice and salad!
This cathedral was absolutely beautiful and is actually really cool, since it was built by the citizens of the city!
We loved the stained glass windows!
We did have a gelato break, even before we went to Italy! It was awesome!
Our next stop was Park Guell, which is one of Antoni Guadi's famous works!
Jake got a little silly...
In the afternoon, we went back to the cathedral to visit the 13 geese, and we really enjoyed it! While the geese symbolize something very emotional, you can't help but laugh when you see them running around after chunks of bread, or other things like lettuce, that people are throwing in.
Here are a few images from the Boqueria! We love all of the fresh food!
Plenty of Star Wars references from abroad!
This is a picture of where we were staying in Barcelona!
Our first stop on our third day was the Sagrada Familia, which is one of the most beautiful and famous landmarks in all of Spain! This was also a work of Antoni Gaudí. We also loved the stained glass windows here!
Part of the design of this cathedral resembles nature and is intended to look like trees and flowers.
During our final evening in Barcelona, we planned to see the Magic Fountain and the 1992 Olympic Stadium. These are located on Montjuïc, one of Barcelona's highest points. The views over Barcelona are absolutely stunning and the Magic Fountain is definitely appropriately named! The only downside was that since I had been to Barcelona three years ago, there were now strict hours on visiting the Olympic Stadium, which had closed a few hours before we arrived, so unfortunately, no sunset watching like I did on my last trip, but we still had an excellent evening!
This is not a picture of us, but I thought this was one of the cutest photos of the trip! :)
That's all for Barcelona and for Spain as well! Off to Italy! :)
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