Europe Travel Diary – Part IV – Barcelona

Previously: Part III – Gibraltar

We took a 5.5 hour train ride from Algeciras back to Madrid. We spent the afternoon visiting the Royal Palace which we had been unable to visit on the first day of our trip. As one might expect, the palace was quite lavish. That evening we conquered Tapas. That might not seem like much of an accomplishment but it was for us. We’re not really the types to bar hop having a drink and bit of food at each place so instead we went to a restaurant fairly close to our hotel and sat outside on the patio. We ordered a pitcher of sangria and five different tapas over the course of two hours. We sampled everything from smoked salmon to Spanish torta to a delicious mystery croquette!

The next morning we rode the high speed train to Barcelona for the day. Barcelona might have deserved a longer visit but this was all that we could fit into this trip. The train reached speeds in excess of 300 km/h! Surprisingly it didn’t feel that fast. We got a newspaper on the train and were surprised to see showers forecast for Barcelona! We hadn’t seen a drop of rain yet on our trip and didn’t have our rain jackets with us! Luckily although we had a cloudy day it never actually rained on us.

Our first stop was Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church. It was really really impressive. Construction began in 1882 and is ongoing. We were quite interested in the displays that showed how Gaudi incorporated mathematical constructs from nature into his designs. Who doesn’t love a good Hyperboloid Structure! I’m planning on returning to Barcelona in 50 years to see it when it is finally fully built. Mom doesn’t think she’ll bother!

Next we took the metro to the Picasso Museum. It was really neat to see some of Picasso’s younger works from before the cubism phase. Then we went to Las Ramblas a very wide pedestrian street teeming with locals and tourists alike. The main reason we were there was to try churros con chocolate. Yes, we dipped greasy fried churros into a cup of thick hot chocolate pudding. It was very good as a snack but we still didn’t understand how it can be eaten as a breakfast food!

The rest of my Barcelona photos are here.

Next: Part V – Lisbon