Barcelona

We last visited Barcelona in 1998 on our last European tour and have been looking for an excuse to come back ever since. Lucky for us then that it was directly on our path north up to Central Europe!

We were very keen to revisit the numerous works of the celebrated local architect Gaudi, including the Sagrada Familia - his world famous cathedral - still very much a work in progress almost 100 years on.

The Sagrada Familia

Fighting off the hordes of tourists was no mean feat, but we managed a good hour wandering around gazing upwards at his stunning nature inspired designs - such as the inside columns inspired by trees in a forest. There was a great exhibition displaying further how his love for nature had inspired almost every nook and cranny of his master project, but the quantity of material on display, coupled with the heat and the endless stream of tourists did limit the amount that we were able to take in.

Interior support provided by a forest

A luckless turtle providing some external support

Overall though, it was really quite hard to notice what had changed since our last visit, (but I'm sure we'll notice when we find our old photos) and we were quite disappointed to find that it has still got another 13 years to go before it will be completed! Oh well, I guess than means another return visit!

It's still got a long way to go...

...which means a return visit!

After the cathedral, we headed on up the hill to Park Güell, another of Gaudi's works, with it's amazing mosaic tiled pavillion. Great view from up there, but unfortunately yet another view totally obscured by the thousands of tourists milling around. We literally had to fight for some space to enjoy our lunch, but was it worth it? Yes definitely!

Park Güell

A great view on albeit a moody day in Barcelona

Spot the Eric amongst the throng

Detail of tile mosaic

The famous Park Güell gecko

It was also great to be able to catch up with Iolanda, and old friend and colleague from our Amsterdam days, who we hadn't seen in about 9 years. She hadn't changed a bit, although is now the proud mum of the very gorgeous Nora, who kept us amused all afternoon - despite our non existent Catalan and our up-til-now lack of enthusiasm for Teletubbies! Iolanda proved a great source of information on where to visit in the Costa Brava (our next adventure) and it was great to reconnect again after all this time.

Although it was Barcelona we had come to visit,we opted to stay down the coast a bit further in the coastal resort of Sitges. A very salubrious neighbourhood indeed, although very much a resort, which was quite a shock to the system after our recent destinations. It had a series of lovely beaches, catering for all sorts of preferences if you know what I mean. Barcelona was an easy train or bus ride in, and it provided a nice and relaxing alternative to staying in the big smoke, which to be fair is almost impossible now that they have removed pretty much all of the camping grounds in Barcelona proper.