On Thursday 28 May we had coffee and pastry for breakfast near the markets after we bought some fruit for the train trip to Barcelona. We’ve seen quite a few nice fruit shops but for some reason fruit rarely features on restaurant menus. We left the hotel at 10am and had lunch on the train.
In Barcelona Carlos led us on a walking tour of the city which included La Rambla and some of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí‘s works including:
- Lanterns in Royal Plaza (Spanish: Plaça Reial)
- Casa Milà, popularly known as ‘La Pedrera’ (the stone quarry), declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
- Casa Batlló, locally known as ‘Casa dels ossos’ (House of Bones), is a house that was remodeled by Gaudí in 1904 and has been refurbished several times since. We went back again, following afternoon drinks, and paid to walk through it. Admission included the use of a small tablet device, like and iPhone, that gave a 360° “virtual tour” and commentary in most rooms.
On Friday 29 May we had a full morning visiting Sagrada Família, that is, Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (Spanish: Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família) designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). It is still under construction (and has been since 1882!) and in spite of the crowds feels more welcoming than most basilicas because it has much lighter stone work. In the afternoon the girls went back to Catalonia Park Putxet Hotel while I went to the Gaudí designed gardens, Park Güell. According to Wikipedia it was “built between 1900 and 1914 and was officially opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site under ‘Works of Antoni Gaudí'”. The whole tour group meet up for our last dinner together at Cuines de Santa Caterina restaurant in Santa Caterina Market.
Saturday 30 May was the last ‘day’ of the tour 😦 sad; breakfast was the last organised activity. Most of us had booked tickets to the Picasso museum. We had a tapas lunch together over the road from the Santa Caterina Market while watching some characters on the street, probably something to do with the foot ball finals; many people were in their colours.
We enjoyed the Intrepid tour from Madrid to Barcelona because we felt a little less like tourists being herded from one commission paying venue to another. That is because we were in a smaller group that travelled on public transport and of course Carlos who had lived in Australia and Spain knew the best of both cultures. We farewelled our new friends before the two of us headed of to our Airbnb accommodation. The tour had taken us east across southern Spain, we were now looking forward to heading west and seeing the top of Spain.
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