Barcelona's Amazing Architecture and Fabulous Food

Without having done much research on Barcelona, we were not prepared in any way for the size of the city. Don't know why; after all it has been a major city for over 1,000 years and in modern times is large enough to host major sporting events like the Summer Olympics in 1992.

We were docked in the port area and didn't have much of a view into the city from the ship, so we had to depend on our tour if we wanted to see anything. The tour, entitled Tapas and Gaudi, would give us something of an overview with a stop for tapas along the way. The only problem was that since Barcelona is so large, all of our sightseeing, other than the Sagrada Familia, the huge Gaudi cathedral, was done from the bus.

There is so much different and interesting architecture in Barcelona that whenever we stopped, we could have used a little time to just stand and admire it. Instead we normally only had the length of a red traffic light to catch a glimpse of an interesting building façade or balcony. One thing that we noticed is that it would be easy to make an interesting collage or collection of wrought iron balconies in Barcelona, just like people take photos of the Georgian doors in Dublin.

Our tour started off with a ride up to Montjuic, or the Hill of the Jews. Some of the main venues for the Olympics are here, including the high diving pavilion. It must be amazing to watch a diving competition here because the spectators get to see not only the diving, but look over the city as there is no 'front' wall of the building!

Overlooking part of the city from Montjuic

One of the museums. There is a water and
light show in the fountains at night.

               

Back down in the centre of the city, we ended up making two tapas stops. A mother and daughter on our tour had done the same tour a few years ago, and gave the rest of us pointers about how much to eat and what sorts of food we could expect. But we'll get to the food stops later. We'll take care of the Sagrada Familia first.

Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 and became one of the most notable 'new style' architects from Spain. In the late 1800s he was commissioned by one of the church parishes in Barcelona to design and build a cathedral dedicated to the Holy Family. Once construction started, he continued to work on it until his death in 1926 at the age of 74. Ironically, he was struck by a city tram in front of the building. Maybe he stepped back to admire his work and didn't pay attention to where he was....After his death, the portions of the building already close to completion were finished to his design, but then other architects were called upon to continue the work. As you can see from the photos, it is still under construction and is not expected to be finished for another 12 years, in time for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

Not only does the cathedral look like something of a mishmash of architectural designs (to our uneducated view, that is), but the entire project is so ambitious that once the last tower and the huge promenade to the main entrance are finished, it may look so overwhelming that it becomes impossible to appreciate. The inside is apparently quite something to see, but our tour didn't include that and there would have been no time to buy a ticket and get inside. (Nothing better than funding a build with tourist Euros if you can!). Here are a few photos of the outside:

This is actually one side of the cathedral. This
is the part Gaudi worked on himself.

A closer shot of the Nativity. This side of
the church is dedicated to the birth of
Jesus, the opposite side to his death and
resurrection.

Somewhat more modern sculptural style showing
Jesus carrying the cross and his
crucifixion. Larry says that some of the Roman
guards look like Imperial storm troopers!

A side view of the depiction of the Last Supper

The picture of a picture above shows how it will look when it is finished. Note that there will be 18 bell towers, including one for each apostle, a couple for some saints and one for each of the Holy Family. The tallest one, dedicated to Jesus Christ, will be fully as tall as Montjuic, something like178 metres in total. And they think they're going to have it finished in 12 years????

Now on to the food. Our first tapas stop was near the Sagrada Familia, in what looked like a very small restaurant and bar - until you got inside. The place was long and narrow, with counters and kitchen down one side and tables on the other and across the back. Our 30 people only took up about 4 tables. But the really impressive thing was all the dry cured hams hanging from the ceiling. Larry, and probably a few others, were wondering if the restaurant would notice if they snuck a few out to take home. Our second tapas stop was at a restaurant by the Olympic Marina, which is now a seaside restaurant/bar area along with hotels and a small boat marina. Since a picture of food says more than a thousand-word description, we'll just do this:

This was only a very small number of the hams hanging
in this restaurant.

This tastes like slightly longer cured
prosciutto.

Marinated vegetables - eggplant, peppers, onions

The prepared food bar. It all looked so delicious!

At our second stop, this was the paella pan
that served our large table.

Even after all this, we were all able to eat dinner back on board the ship. This first taste of Barcelona decided us on spending a couple of days before or after a future cruise in the Mediterranean. A single day just can't do justice to its diversity of architecture and its great food options.