Picturesque Barcelona With Picasso and Gaudi

I wanted to make an everything-Gaudi in Barcelona post. But after sorting the photos, that’s gonna be one long blog post.

Because of thechange in flight schedule, our time in Barcelona was just limited to two days (was supposed to be three, but changes happen). We had a couple of hours sleep and woke up to a sunny and promising vibe of Barcelona. We had to walk a block away to find a nearby cafe. It was a nice walk. The blocks here are huge and long. So when they say “a couple of blocks away”, that is not exactly “near” by walking standards. And by this time in the trip, our walking standards are different for Philippine walking standards.

 

Barcelona Breakfast

Breakfast: €1.80 for a cup of coffee and a croissant. Super plus: the cafe has a toilet you can use.

Our hostel gave us some maps to navigate around the city. We also booked our Sagrada Familia tickets for a slot that afternoon. Lines were terrifyingly long, they said. Our hostel did not have a printer so we had to walk across the street to have our tickets printed for €1.45.

 

We walked blocks (loooong blocks) to find the Arc de Triomf of Barcelona. Now this one is made of brick. It blends nicely with my outfit. Hehehehe!

 

Sun salute at Arc de Triomf in Barcelona

 There’s another brick building nearby – can’t recall the name.

 

Some wushu-inspired poses here

There’s Parque de la Ciudadeta 

Where the locals go sunbathing with their pets

The park has this Tropical Garden. Something that was... very common in the Philippines so we skipped that one.  

Nope, we decided not to go in

   

We navigated our way going to Picasso Museum. Marj requested that we go inside the museum, she’s a fan of Picasso. I agreed. There’s just this looooong line buying the tickets – not really a surprise, but I wasn’t really ready to fall in line. So since I had a travel buddy this time, I amused myself my taking photos, and having my photo taken.   

 

We got the €6.00 fare because we were below 29. Hihihihihi!

 

Picasso Museum entrance fees

Picasso Museum was a surprising delight for me. I mentioned many times in my EU series that I don’t have a deep appreciation for art. Picasso was very entertaining. There were these scraps of art paper then framed in the museum, then it has a title. Sorry! I don’t have a deep appreciation for all his work *sheepish smile*. We had fun appreciating the art and having some fun humor with it. I think that’s the fun part of having a travel buddy while appreciating all the artwork.

I did learn about his style: cubism, and some surrealism. We passed other paintings in search of the famous Las Meninas. Prior to this trip, I forgot all of my HumII readings, so I have no idea about Picasso’s work. Now, I do have some sort of material for a cocktail conversation.

The hour passed, with no photos. Then it was time to hit the toilet before exploring the rest of Barcelona.

 

I had no pics in the museum so I took pics in the bathroom

 

We were tired and about to go hungry. But we decided to get lost around that area for a bit before settling in a restaurant near a church. 

Pretty balconies in the buildings

I cannot recall the name of the church, nor the name of the restaurant (I recall it had a Tripadvisor sticker). I was tired and hungry. Food was served after a couple for minutes. It was a decent meal for €14.25.

 

Anything is good when you are hungry

  

We were refueled. So we had more energy to walk!

 

 

A snapshot at La Rambla

Placa de Catalunya

I had to shoo away some pigeons for this shot

More blocks later, we arrived in Casa Batllo and Casa Mila.

Casa Batllo

It was very hard to get a good angle here. With the renovations and all the tourists, better spend time admiring and appreciating the building.

 

 

With our legs still in working, we walked more blocks going to Sagrada Familia.