4/22–Barcelona

Fifteen days and we are finally off that ship.   No more noisy, crazy, crowded venues. No more noisy deck workers waking us up at 3:45 in the morning. No more standing in line for anything and everything.  Barcelona has never looked so good!  We are spending one night here – at the airport hotel – before flying to Switzerland, so we don’t need to rush off the ship – but then again, we don’t necessarily want to stay either.  As it turns out, we’re off and in a taxi a little before 9am – so we figure we’ll be hanging out at the hotel a bit before venturing into town.  But, we get lucky and there is a room available – albeit with 3 beds.  We’re not picky – we’ll take it – and turns out to be fine – the extra bed is a great place to organize and dump our packs, etc.

We hang out in the room for an hour or so, catching up on the world since we finally have decent internet, then we head downstairs to catch the 11am shuttle into town. Turns out we made the right move taking the room – the lobby is filled with people waiting for rooms to become available.  Being first strategy wins again!

We almost miss the shuttle because we are thinking it will be a large van, but there is a huge bus boarding all the cruise passengers off to the side.  We sort of mill around the front entrance, but finally go up to the bus driver, show him our tickets and he says, yes, this is the shuttle.  Hmmm….well, off we go…with the cruisers who are all boarding their ships, and we end up spending an extra half an hour riding around the port we just left.  Ugh.  The only silver lining to this frustrating ride around the port is that it takes us longer to get into town – and our plans are to go to a brewery and grab lunch – so the later the better (although it was fairly frustrating!). 

Finally set free at the Placa de les Drassanes, our meeting place, we make the 30 minute hike up through Sant Antoni and Raval, past Moritz and the closed Barcelona Beer Company to Garage Beer – the one brewery that was closed on our last trip.  Today we have success, it is open, and we are one of their first customers.  Safely ensconced at the bar, we order some great beers and equally good snacks…

…chat up the bartender, who reaffirms our feelings that this place is just like Asheville, only bigger (hard to find affordable places to live, over-expansion, but great atmosphere, etc. etc.), and spend an hour or so thoroughly enjoying the company and the setting.  

We’ve got nothing else planned for our Sunday in Barcelona, so we end up wandering through Raval and down onto Las Ramblas, enjoying the weather, the walk and the people watching.  Eventually we are far enough down La Rambla that we stumble upon Palau Guell, Gaudi’s first commission begun in 1886.  Can’t tell you how many times we have walked past the signs, and just ignored the place – for whatever reason.  Today, with tons of time on our hands, we decided we might as well visit the palace, as it is about the only Gaudi designed monument we haven’t visited yet.  Turned out to be a great decision, as this was his first commission for Guell, who ended up being Gaudi’s biggest client and closest friend (as is evidenced by Park Guell and other buildings Gaudi created for Guell.  This palace was intriguing because, as you walked through the different floors, you could see how Gaudi began his design thought process and compare it with his later accomplishments. We spent two wonderful hours wandering through the 5 floor palace.

Basement:  The stables (yes, these ornate carved stone areas were stables!)

Staircase to the main floor:

The main floor, with it’s wild “hall of intimates” (including the built in window seat with ornately carved leather seat back) and dining room…

…then outside on the wrought iron covered southern terrace with view down to the stables:

Back inside we retraced our steps to the magnificent Central Hall, the 3 story high wood ceilinged masterpiece with incredibly ornate wood carvings:

past the gold inlaid chapel (behind the closed doors), lifelike murals and organ...

…then up the mezzanine staircase to view it all from above.  Truly stunning. We could have stayed in the Central hall for hours trying to take all the design features in.

The next floor contained the bedrooms, which were decked out in wood and ceramic with beautiful leather furniture and stained glass. 

Next stop: the roof terrace, where Gaudi introduces what becomes one of his signature design elements, the rooftop turrets in all shapes and designs.  Gaudi’s imagination even manages to make this little tiny roof space magical (made even more special because you can also see Sagrada Familia in the distance):

Right below the roof, in the attic is a well done “museum,” so to speak, with tons of different information on Gaudi, his designs and this particular house.  It’s a beautiful space, with cool glass sculptures, walls and skylights, that wraps around what once was the servants’ quarters.  On display is also a photo of the rooftop at night.  A great idea for which we would come back, if only we were staying in the city.

Our final stop is the gift shop for wandering and to take a picture of the model palace, then outside we go, with more photos of the facade, to wander grab some snacks and wander our way back to the bus pick up stop.