Beautiful Barcelona

Traveling for me had taken a back seat the past year or so. Definitely priorities change, so does the plans. The past few weeks, since August I kind of get to relive the bachelor days. My wife and kid back in India gave me plenty of time for myself. The weather gods of Ireland when are in a good mood, I make the most of it by Cycling or running. Winter is imminent and this good weather won’t last, So time to put the travellers hat back on. It was an impulsive decision looks at the cities I would like to visit and checked which of those destinations had the cheapest air fare. That was about it. From "what do I do four weekends from now?" to "booking done" was all over in mere thirty minutes. 

Barcelona it is, my best buddy had been there before. He seemed to have a good time there, so why not! Departure at the wee hours on twentieth of Friday and back by midnight of Monday. Three days and two nights. Now I had five weeks to look forward to this weekend. Never even bothered to make any plan as to what I must do when I get there. The previous evening of the departure is when I actually sort the tickets, Direction to the hotel and drafted a rough plan as to places to visit while I was there. 

Off I go!

On the very approach to the "El Prat" airport looking outside the window I could sense that I am in for some treat. The geography is vastly different to where I live. There are hills and valleys, lots of lush greenery. Streams and rivers cut the landscape dotted with small lakes all over. 

The weather was sunny and balmy as I got out and realised there was no need of a jacket here. It was an enjoyable seventeen degrees. The first hour of being in a foreign county is always anxious. That's due to the language barrier.  I was trying hard to figure out the stop I had to get off at. By the time I could understand where the name of each stop is mentioned, I had missed mine. But I was in good company of another newbie to Barcelona. He was Spanish. He looked at me clutching me to a print out and trying to look out at every stop. He assured me. " I am lost too" . That was comforting to me. He said, the bus heads to the El Spanya main station and we can figure out where ever we wanted to go from there. Kind soul he is. At the main station, not only could I figure out where I needed to get to, but also surprised that three days of Metro and Bus unlimited ticket is just twenty euros. No brainier!. Got off at the stop and to the hotel I had booked my stay. The receptionist was struggling at English but she more than made up for the the lack of easy communication by being extremely helpful. She was being even apologetic about it. I said, your intention to help a tourist like me is more than what any one new to town can ask for. 

By eleven I was up and about the town. The Hotel was right besides a massive square called fontella. The whole square was carpeted with hundreds  of pigeon. Opposite was the Hop on and Hop off  service. Given the weather was so good, I wasn't surprised that I had to queue up to buy a ticket to get on this bus. It had three routes, Red blue and green and a ticket would last two days to allow me to hop on to any of the routes as many number of times I liked .  Sounded Perfect !. 

Plan was to get on to this tour bus that day on all routes and make note of all the places that would interest me. Got on to the bus and each round trip would take more than an hour.  

On the map, noted down the stops that I wanted to get off and finished both the routes. (Green route was not in service) It was evening and Barcelona city centre does not have one high street, it has several. I went about exploring. In light of the Paris attacks the city was definitely on high alert. Police was deployed everywhere. I definitely did not look like a local and I definitely I got plenty of glances. I don't mind that. I, in fact admire them for the tough job that they have ahead. The city was not sparsely populated in anyway. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly tourists flocked the streets. On the Red route, I got off at a stop atop Montjuïc. It was due to the mention of a cable car. Got into one which stopped at a castle at the top of the Mountain.

The castle had few cannons but nothing much to offer. What it had in abundance was a view. We could see for hundreds of kilometres across the ocean horizon on one side. The other side had the entire city in full view. That is why this has to be the most strategic location for any castle with big BIG guns! The port below was bustling so was the city on the other side.

The evening of the first day, wandered into the market area where local artisans had lot to exhibit. Meandering into the packed streets, I ended up at the farmers market. It was a good find by me. The dry fruits, Chocolates, sea food shops were a delight to see. Even my camera would have been happy.

it was hard to find any good vegetarian food, so had to settle for some salad and fruits and ended my day. I slept like a log.

The following morning, headed out by nine straight to the bus.  Few observations I made during the day tour was, First, the selfie sticks domination. Every tourist had one. Never seen such an invasion of a weird apparatus before on such scale.  Second observation was that Catalans (Barcelona a.k.a Cataluña ) did not take to bicycles as other cities, such as Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam or London has taken to. It has to be because of the gradients all over the city. Barcelona a is locked by two hills on either sides and sea on the other side, so the only flat transport surface is by the sea coast.Third was few of the high streets were lined with orange trees, with real oranges hanging off its branches. Not few, but several!! 

My first stop was the iconic "Sagrada Familia” The presence of such a massive cathedral dwarfed every other structure around it. I was fascinated by the rear facade, which was still under construction.

The sculptures did not looks like from a by gone ear. It had a more modern touch to it. Apparently the construction of this land mark has been going on for centuries. It’s all the contribution of the visitors that keeps the work going on. After purchasing the ticket I realised that I was at the rear entrance. Had to walk around to get to the front entrance. Awe struck is an understatement. It was beautiful the work was from a bygone era. Standing in front of this massive structure and trying to look at the top of the tower gave me a neck ache. The security was tight and as part of a "Random" check I was patted down and bags all checked twice. I always knew that I wear a look of a thief or someone who is up to some mischief. I don't blame them for it, because my default look would not inspire confidence to any security personnel. The inside was surprisingly not as large as what it looked from outside. Pictures would speak well than what I can ever describe.

Headed out and the next stop was Mount Tibidabo.  Anything to do with scaling heights, I am there. A bus took us to the stop where we get the "Funicular”. I kept thinking Funicular was the name of the place, but actually it means a cable car. There for the first time I witnessed a train coach designed at an angle. It has stairs in it. Hopped on to it, for some spectacular views. At the top of Mount Tibidabo it gave me the perspective from the opposite end to what I enjoyed the day before from Montjuïc. There was a theme park at the op and two church. From here we could see the TV tower, a beautiful structure in itself designed by Sir Norman Foster. Fast winds up there made sure I did not hag about for long. The view from the church showed that the city of Barcelona had lot of fauna behind these mountains. For the residents of this city what a fabulous opportunity to explore the wilderness. 

Back on the bus after the decent straight to Camp Nou. I admit, that I am not much into football, but I always had an interest into what these venues would look like. The power for such a structure to entice more than one hundred thousand people in this case is something not to be noticed. FC Barcelona stadium is the largest in Europe. Once I was in, I was gently being introduced to what this place is all about. This is the place where great players are from. Ronaldino, Messi, Piqué are to name a few. 

A century old club this one had a lot of exhibits. The first cup dating all the way from 1902. The audio visual room was also well equipped. I found myself spending half hour in front of a touch interactive massive screen where one could pull up the video clips of the goals scored. Very entertaining it was. Had a tour of the massive stadium at the visitor level, from the directors’ box level and also from the dugout. Spectacular!  I was keen on buying some merchandise, but then feared from who I would put off, if they had known. First of all I am not a fan boy. 

Day two was drawing to an end. The monastery and the 1980's industrial museum did not excite me but I had one more place of interest. The "Barcelona Cathedral" It was a historic monument from the seventeen hundreds. The place was so busy that I had to queue up for forty five minutes. But it was worth it. What makes me wonder is what these kind of ancient structures have witnessed. The times they have been through and the millions of people who would have gone in and out of the doors and an exponential numbers of prayers being rendered here. 

I walked back to the square, walking around was a good way to explore. Spent the dusk at the fontella square clicking away pictures of the colourful fountains. Grabbed something to eat as well as some snacks and retired to the hotel. 

Day three, the final day.Checked out at nine, but left my luggage and straight to the history museum. Doors open at half nine and I was at the station Closest to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya by Nine. The museum was once the place of the kings and what a place it was. Could not be at a better location. Half way up the Montjuïc. Overlooking the city and the grand entrance. A sports event was ongoing and I was lucky enough to witness the lead runner come up. ten kilometers in thirty minutes. Made a note to myslf, next time I visit some place I must try to participate in such events. Such events will hold the memory longer than pictures for me. The History museum had several  sections and it took em three hours just to get around the place. Not as massive as the museum at London or Amsterdam, but much bigger than the one at Dublin . The museum also had a theatre within it which was so grand that it looked straight of out movies. The place was being set up for most probably a musical concert of some kind.

After the tour, I let myself down the stairs to the bottom of the hill. The Barcelona arena was there, and I got to the top of that as well and had a look at the city and the park. Just adding another perspective.

Later that day, I spent walking around the harbour side, having some food, enjoying the music that was being played and the sun. It was long walk to the beach side and enjoyed the view. The surfers were making most of the waves and the clear water. 

What way way to relax and end my tour, i thought to myself. the whole walk way was lined with nothing but restaurants. For the sea food lovers this place is a heaven. Not a vegetarian like me. Spoilt for choices were the tourists. I walked back to the hotel, took my luggage and headed to the square to just see the people with their kids have a good time. Chatted up with a French national who was also a tourist like me and that drew us close to the departure time. Headed to the airport and jumped into the quarter past nine plane bidding goodbye to the city that offered such , good weather, sun and food not to mention fantastic places to visit. I dozed off as soon I was in the seat. Touch down at Dublin at mid night, out of the door the first sight was screen. It mentioned the weather condition of Dublin. It read "Dublin 0 degrees with spells of rain" !! Welcome to reality I told myself!