Day 6 (Thursday)- Barcelona

Today was a busy day of Barcelona sight-seeing. We started with a walking tour of the Gothic district of town. There were lots of old buildings. I have to admit that I’m starting to get old building burn-out.

There were two main things that I got out of this tour. The first was a better understanding of Catalonia, Barcelona’s “autonomous community”. Spain has 17 autonomous communities and 2 cities. These all used to be separate kingdoms with their own languages until they were united into one country. Catalonia still maintains two official languages, Spanish, Catalan and Aranese. School is taught in multiple languages and most residents are bi-lingual. I had a classmate from Catalonia who spoke Spanish, Catalan, French, English, and was learning German.

The second was that geese are good guard animals. The cathedral courtyard has 13 guard geese.

After lunch, we got on the “hop on, hop off” Barcelona Bus Turistic. It is a little more expensive than city bus tours in other cities, but it was worth it. They are usually 1-2 hours. This was 4. The bus has two routes through the city (three in summer) and takes you past most of the main sights sights. The blue route takes you around the old city, the Olympic areas, and the harbor. The red route shows you the new city and much of the city’s architectural heritage.

We stopped on the shore. Barcelona has beautiful beaches. I am so used to big harbor cities having dirty beaches nearby. This is not true. Ken did some wading in the Mediterranean.

I am not an art fan. This is not good when most of Europe’s treasures are artistic masterpieces. However, I now have a favorite artist. I really enjoy Antoni Gaudí’s work here. Ken thinks it is gaudy. I have never seen buildings that are so much fun to look at. Sure they are bizarre, but that is fun part. They stand out in a continent of old buildings. We drove by the:
the Battló
the Casa Mila
the Park Güell
and the Sagrada Família (we’re going back tomorrow to tour this one on the inside).