After breakfast I took a nap to try to counter the effects on my sleeping schedule of waking up at 3:00. After napping, I walked around l'Eixample, the district near my hotel, for about two hours. It was drizzling but not too cold. The streets in this neighborhood are pretty uniform: beautiful stone and cast-iron apartments with shops and farmacias underneath. I walked to la Sagrada Familia, one of Barcelona's most famous monuments and Gaudi's masterpiece, but was a little underwhelmed. The cathedral is amazing but it was obscured by scaffolding--maybe they're doing renovations? It had already fallen dark by that time and the building was not at all lit up. I knew I was in a tourist area by the nearby McDonalds and Starbucks.
After Sagrada Familia, I walked back down Carrer de Mallorca toward Passeig de Gràcia, one of the busier streets. There are still lots of Christmas lights up, and most places had garland-like lights strung across between the two sides of the street.
The streets nearest to my hotel had this square-and-triangle design, which was probably the least interesting one but still cool.
Passeig de Gràcia had these pretty snowflakes.
An example of curvy Modernista architecture on Passeig de Gràcia, although a little hard to see in this picture. (*Update: This is Casa Batllo, another Gaudi.)
The pretty painted side of Catalonia Berna. My hotel room is the second window from the left on the second floor.
2 comments:
Hi Nicole, I love reading about your time in Barcelona. I know Jim will too, especially all the unusual culinary experiences. I remember when he told me about sucking the eyes out of shrimp heads as the final delight at the 'peel and eat' cafes when he lived in Alicante. I tried to respond earlier, but it didn't work. Hopefully this will! Ginny
Hi Ginny! I am glad that you enjoy my blog and what I fear are food reports published ad nauseam! I have yet do do the sucking-out-the-eyes-of-the-shrimp-heads but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.
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