Tour of Barcelona

We all slept pretty well last night. We are at the Hotel Alexandra on Majorca St. It is a contemporary hotel, not too big, with excellent staff and a good location in the Eixample area of Barcelona. This area was a military district until the 1860’s when it was razed for a planned community. As a result, the streets are laid out in a grid system and all are 20 meters wide; 10 meters for cars and 10 metres for the sidewalks. The streets have many trees and the architecture has a distinct Art Nouveau look. It is very reminiscent of Paris with lots of wrought iron balconies.

Very sensibly, each corner is cut on a 45’ angle, rather than 90 degrees like in North America. This allows for parking for about 6 cars on each corner of an intersection and provides much better sight lines.

Our morning bus tour took us first to the Sagrada Familia (more about that later), then on to Montjuïc. Much more interesting than the standard “scenic view” point. Montjuïc has sports facilities ( swimming, riding, tennis, platform tennis) a soccer stadium, an art museum in a former palace, and many repurposed buildings from the Olympics. Fortunately it is a beautiful day (sunny and low 70s).

We finished the morning with a short walk down Las Ramblas. This is the major street to the water and a “ must do “ for tourists. It is a busy commercial street with a wide, heavily treed boulevard down the middle. Very busy and prime hunting ground for pickpockets. We took a short detour into the Bari Gotic. This is part of the original city with very narrow, twisty streets and remnants of the city walls.

Then back to the hotel before heading out to return to the Sagrada Familia for an audio tour.Read more