Barcelona at a glance

Okay, we're pretty much caught up now!  Man, what a load off!  It feels good to be back in the present, doesn't it?

We've seen a lot just from walking around Barcelona randomly the past couple days.  It's a spectacular city.  Gaudi's influence is everywhere!  There are buildings of his design scattered throughout the city.  Without much research (not my normal style), we have seen a bunch already.
The first thing we did was take a cab to Park Guell.

Unfortunately, they only allow a certain number of people to enter the park at one time and we could not get tickets.  We plan to go back soon!

Then we hit the beach:

Barcelona's beach is actually a "fake" beach, as it's man-made.  I hear the sand is imported from Hawaii.  Either way it was a very nice beach.

We got some super expensive beach grub:

We've got pork with caramelized onions and sangria.  Delish!

The next day, we explored the city much more.  I took lots of random building pictures because they're just incredible!

This amusement park is right down the street from us:

And not far from that is a shop where they made their own whisky:

Vinegar:

Liquors:

Oils:

We tried some samples and vowed to return because it was an awesome place and the owner was the nicest guy ever!

Placa de la Vila de Gracia:

I read there's a celebration coming up in Gracia (our neighborhood) called Festa Major de Gracia, where locals compete to have the most decorated street.  It's a week-long festival and it's starting any time now, so people are really getting into it.  Everywhere you look the streets are getting a makeover.  What a cool tradition!

I saw a guy zipping around on this and it reminded me of Back To The Future:

More pretty architecture in Gracia and neighboring area, L'Eixample:

Who knew giraffes could contort their bodies like that?? I had no idea!

This is the Esglesia de les Saleses:

Incredible, right? It's really been fun to just wander and see stuff like this at random.  You never know what you'll find and it's all so jaw-dropping.  Barcelona has proven to be a city of wonders.

Keep going!  Placa de Mossen Jacint Verdaguer:

Random bank:

Walked by this on the street:

I think this is Casa de les Punxes (House of Spikes):

Aptly named, it's the only fully detached building in L'Eixample.

Another church:

On our walk, we passed Casa Mila AKA La Pedrera:

Another Gaudi masterpiece, it's supposed to be amazing on the inside and especially on the roof, but we didn't go inside.  It's close to our apartment, so I'm sure we will at some point.  A shop next door had a window into the interior, so I tried to snap some pics:

They didn't really turn out that great.

Next up: Casa Batllo:

This is known as one of the strangest residential buildings in Europe.  Again, made by Gaudi.  This guy's influence is everywhere!  We didn't go inside this one either (it's 18.50 Euros to go inside!), but probably will eventually.  

L'Eixample is known as a more wealthy area and they have all sorts of high-end shops.  This part of Passeig de Gracia reminds me of Rodeo Drive, except with Gaudi buildings scattered in between.  Some of the shops are underneath these gorgeous, old Gothic-style buildings:

Not sure if there are businesses or apartments up there, but they're beautiful (and probably expensive!).

We walked down Passeig de Gracia until we got to Placa de Catalunya:

Even though the weather was a bit gloomy, the plaza was really pretty, with lots of fountains and statues.

We saw the famous La Rambla street was nearby and decided to just keep on going!

La Rambla is probably the most touristy part of Barcelona.  It's a long street filled with shops and restaurants (and people).  It goes from Placa de Catalunya all the way to the port (maybe a mile?).  Let's go!

We stopped into La Boqueria, which is the coolest market I've seen so far.  The food displays were beautiful, like art:

I never tried this fruit:

So I got a fruit salad with a piece:

Kinda didn't taste like anything, but better than it tasting like garbage, so not bad I guess.

Since La Rambla is so touristy, there are all these people dressed up for pictures with tourists:

The answer is yes, people really pay money for that crap.  Whatever!

We got to the end of La Rambla (or the beginning, depending on which way you're going), marked by the Christopher Colombus landmark:

There's actually an elevator inside you can pay to take you up for a bird's eye view.

We're now at the port:

We walked over this bridge to the mall area:

At this point we were tired and needed refreshments, so we sat by the water and had tuna belly with tomato and onion:

and assorted fried fish (more for me than Aaron):

Yum!  Okay, I'm ready to keep walking:

We made it all the way to the beach before turning around.  I know you don't know this, but we walked REALLY far!  As if that wasn't enough, we walked ALL the way back!  It took about an hour and a half to get home, with maybe a 10 minute break in between.  We're so sore today that all our plans went out the window and we're laying like slugs.  

However, we did go to Aaron's favorite new hangout for some grub.  It's a really gorgeous hostel/restaurant/bar near our apartment called Casa Gracia:

The pictures are terrible, it's really beautiful.

I had Iberian pork with apple puree and pickled vegetables:

Aaron had beef cheek with mashed potatoes:

Both perfection!  Then he took me downstairs to the bar (not open):

Outside the bathroom is a donkey sink:

You wash your hands in the stomach:

and dry them in the rear:

Yup!  That just happened.

I guess we're picking Door #3:

Stunning!  I guess it just opened a few weeks ago and they serve really unique cocktails.  By unique I mean the bartender infuses the drinks with smoke from herbs and stuff like that.  Yea, we'll be coming back here.  

Now we're just laying on the couch because it's hot and we're achy.  Tomorrow we're going to try Park Guell again, so I'll let you know how that goes!