Over the last two days we've criss crossed Barcelona on foot easily covering at least 20 miles. It's who we are, it's what we do and its one reason we travel alone.
Hop On-Hop Off buses are fine. Organized tours are fine. We simply prefer to be on the ground whether in a large city, small community or on a trail.
I'm sure there are places in Barcelona that travelers shouldn't venture but we haven't heard about them or ambled into any of them. It's a clean and safe city to see on foot. Heck, unlike in Rome even the motorists are friendly to pedestrians. Here a crosswalk is a safe place to cross the street whereas in Rome it's more of a place to funnel pedestrians so it's easier for motorists to pick them off.
Yesterday (Wednesday) for starters we headed towards the Plaza de Espanya. This is a simple walk down the Gran Via Corts Catalanes one of the widest and most scenic streets in Barcelona. There is a pedestrian only section in the middle and wide cafe and tree lined sidewalks on the outside.
Plaza de Espanya is a major intersection which of course over here means a roundabout. In the middle is a huge monument and fountain that was designed by a peer of Antoni Gaudi who was the architect of the Sagrada Familia.
Plaza de Espanya is also home to the Barcelona Arena which is where the bullfights were held until they were ruled illegal back in 2011. I'm sure this ruling made the bulls very happy. Beth and I first visited Spain back in the late 70's with a group that was lead by the Spanish teacher at the great Mulberry High School. I guess you could say we were traveling Idiots before we became Mr. and Mrs. Traveling Idiot.
We went to a real bullfight and at the end of the day it was Matadors 6-Bulls 0 although one bull did manage to gore one of the matadors before suffering the same fate as the other five.
We were told that bullfighting was a rich part of Spainish history and culture. We were also told the bulls were considered "noble" and "honorable". Given an option I'm thinking the bulls would have chosen to be less "noble" and "honorable". Living out their lives in a pasture doing what bulls are supposed to do.
The bullfight was interesting to see but I don't think I would do it again even if I had the chance.
From the Plaza de Espanya we headed up to one of the highest points in Barcelona; Parc de Montjuic. This hilltop park is massive! It houses the National Museum of Art, a Botanical Garden, Castle, Cemetery and many of the venues used in the 1992 Summer Olympics including the main stadium.
We took in quite a bit of the park although in reality we just scratched the surface. After a very mediocre pizza at a cafe with a magnificent view of the harbor we made our way down to the marina where several huge yachts were docked. I always enjoy getting the names of these big guys and reading about them as well as who owns them. We've seen Larry Ellison's (cofounder of Oracle) yacht before. This time some of the more impressive ones have been Ona, Royal Romance, Eminence and Iroquois. Most of these seem to be owned by Russian "businessmen" who I assume are probably friends of Vladimir and Donald.
The Iroquois was interesting. According to google it is 217 feet long, has 6 bedrooms, an infinity pool, massage room, sauna and was purchased by John Henry who owns the Boston Red Sox for $90 million!
Disheartened that we weren't invited onboard we slowly made our way back towards the hotel which is quite nice and does have a rooftop infinity pool. Too bad the heater of the pool is broken right now. If the water was a few degrees colder we could ice skate.
Today (Thursday) was beach day! The "beach area" of Barcelona is known as Barceloneta and is just a couple of miles walk from our hotel. We had never been there before but based on what we had read it seemed very nice. When we got there it was apparent that it was going to live up to its billing. Unfortunately today was also one of those rare days when the weather predictors got it right. The temperature of around 50 was no big deal but when the winds went from strong to real strong in just a couple of minutes we cut our beach time short. So far not packing my speedo for this trip has been okay, I sure didn't need it today!
We did do one thing a little unusual today, we took a bus! I have always been interested in going to a big soccer game (match) somewhere and there aren't too many places around the world bigger than Barcelona when it comes to soccer.
Barcelona currently has the best player in the world (Lionel Messi) and a rich soccer history. Unfortunately they do not play in Barcelona again until next week but being somewhat of a sports geek I thought it would be cool to see where they play. The stadium name is Camp Nou which seats just under 100,000 and is the largest stadium in Europe. In terms of history and tradition Camp Nou is right up there with Yankee Stadium and Lambeau Field.
They offered self guided tours which seemed very popular. Beth who did the Lambeau Field tour with me earlier this year and seemed to enjoy it opted out of the tour and chose hot chocolate and a pastry at a restaurant attached to the stadium instead. She sent me on my sports geeky way.
Although I don't have much background or deep knowledge of the sport I will say it was really nice. They have a museum which goes through the history of the club. There are displays including significant trophies they have won in their 100+ year history. There sure was a bunch of them.
The stadium was quite a site to see and the tour allowed you to see it from the press box right down to coming through the players tunnel and out onto the sidelines.
I really enjoyed it and am now anxiously awaiting tonight's game against Real Sociedad. The game doesn't start until 9:15 so I doubt I'm going to be with it for too long but I do feel a kinship with them now.
