Barcelona and Calella

After having two nights uncomfortable sleep, and with both of us under the weather, we decided to treat ourselves to a decent place to stay for our first two nights in Barcelona.  The apartment we booked was beautiful and beyond our expectations.  It was only three weeks old, and it was just the luxurious environment that we needed to rest and recuperate.

After a fantastic nights sleep, we went for a walk to explore the area.  We spent a long time at a local playground, where Miss S did a lot of swinging.  We had tapas in a local cafe.

The next day we went to Guell Park to see Gaudi's wonderful architecture.  The hill we had to walk up to get there was so steep it had escalators alongside the stairs in some parts.
The park itself is free to enter, but the ticket-only part in the centre is where the exhibits are, including the mosaic lizard, and wavy mosaic wall, from where there is a great view of the city and the sea in the distance.

On my cousin's recommendation, the next day, we went to Calella.  It was a fifty minute train ride, northeast of Barcelona, a beach town.

We enjoyed wandering the quaint lanes, a whole day on the beach and the cheapest mini golf and bowling prices we have ever paid.  The bowling was pretty retro, with only five, short lanes, but fun and the golf course was varied and challenging.  We had a great time, and for us both to play both games cost less than twenty New Zealand dollars!We stayed three nights in Calella, then returned to Barcelona.

Unfortunately, not back to the luxury apartment of last time.  To make amends to the budget we had booked into a room in someone's apartment, rather than the whole apartment.

Sadly, this was to be the second 'springy' bed on our trip and also another noisy room, as we were in the front room, overlooking a busy road.

Conveniently located for the tube and the local playground and plenty of shops though.

We took the tube to La Ramblas and explored La Boqueria market, with it's amazing array of food
stalls.   We took lots of photos, of strange and exotic fruits and enormous capsicums.

Barcelona is huge and we decided a good way to see the sights would be to take a tourist bus that we could hop on and off at different landmarks.

We hopped off at Montjuic and took the cable car up to Montjuic Castell.  We didn't go in, but we walked all around it, took some more photos, and watched a couple of men doing some archery.  Miss  S also spent some time reading her book on a park bench half way round, while i admired the views.  Then we rode back down the cable car and rejoined the bus, which we caught into town for some dinner.  After we came out of the restaurant we discovered the tourist bus had stopped running, so we caught the metro back home.

The next day we went to Sagrada Familia.  We waited in line to buy tickets for about twenty minutes getting rather hot.  We purchased tickets for the Basilica and the towers as well.  Once we had our tickets in hand, we crossed the road and bought some ice cream and ate it in an adjacent park.  After her ice cream Miss S spent some time swinging in the playground.  She was really getting good at keeping the swing going by herself.  My swing pushing days with her are almost over.

We walked around to the entrance to the Basilica and spent the next half hour or so snapping photos.  It is a beautiful and architecturally stunning building.  We went up the tower in a lift that takes you up the first sixty metres,  after which you climb up the steps of the last ten metres.  The views were
amazing.

To get back down, we walked down a narrow circular staircase, with a hole in the centre.  Through the hole you can see right down to the ground seventy metres below.  I felt irrationally terrified as my young daughter kept peering down the hole, admiring the seventy metre drop, and I had visions of her falling right down it.  I was quite relieved when we were both safely back down on the ground.

To finish the day, we went to the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, to see the display of water and lights, set to music. It was pretty.  Miss S described it as breathtaking!  I was surprised the music wasn't classical, instead it was pop music - the likes of One Direction!  Bit of a let-down on that score. Too be fair, we only stayed for the first set, so it could have been classical after we'd left, but we'll never know.  It was pretty though and I'm still glad we went to see it.