Barcelona, Spain

• The only city in the world awarded a Royal Gold Medal for architecture by Royal Institute of British Architects.
• Barcelona is considered the “best beach city” in the world by National Geographic, but their beaches weren’t used for leisure until 1992.
• Home to the busiest pedestrian street in Spain - Las Ramblas.
• The City is older than Rome - but nobody really knows how and when Barcelona was founded.
• It is one of the world’s major cities where smoking cannabis is legal.
• It is the most visited city in Spain.
• It is the most populous city on the Mediterranean Sea.
• Host to the biggest and busiest cruise port in Europe.
• Has the first beach ice bar in the world.
• Home to the largest football stadium in Europe.
• Contains 68 parks, and is home to the largest metropolitan park in the world; El Parc de Collserola.
• Has more than 20 Michelin-starred restaurants.
• Is among the world’s most bike-friendly cities, with more than 180 kilometers of bicycle only lanes.
• Antoní Gaudí was not the original architect of Sagrada Familia, that was Francisco de Paula del Villar.
• Barcelona was the first city considered by Gustav Eiffel to be the home of his tower. It was declined by the Barcelona officials at the time due to not fitting the city’s landscape.

The Norwegian Epic arrived in Barcelona harbor very early at approximately 5:00AM. Our game plan was to wait until the last possible minute to disembark and let the crowds diminish. We had a hotel room reserved at the Alexandra Hilton Hotel, so there was no need to hurry. However, even though Norwegian had originally indicated that we could depart the ship as late as 11AM, the "Freestyle Daily" ship's bulletin made it clear that everyone had to disembark no later than 8AM - so our "remain flexible" rule was followed (ie; don't panic, find a new plan & go have fun!).

I had visited Barcelona numerous times while in the Navy, and Celeste had never been there. However, in the years since I had last been here, the city had grown considerably and in fact the harbor had been extensively expanded since my Navy days. The port area where my ship used to tie up had been converted to a marina (and other facilities) named.

 Barcelona Harbor Quick History Lesson 

The Port of Barcelona has a 2,000 year history and is of great contemporary commercial importance. It is Europe's ninth largest container port, with a trade volume of 2.3 million TEU's in 2006. The port is managed by the Port Authority of Barcelona. Its 7.86 km2 (3 sq mi) are divided into three zones: Port Vell (the Old Port), the commercial port and the logistics port (Barcelona Free Port). The port is undergoing an enlargement that will double its size thanks to diverting the mouth of the Llobregat river 2 km to the south. The Port Vell area also houses the Maremagnum (a commercial mall), a multiplex cinema, the IMAX Port Vell and an aquarium.

 The above information was extracted from Wikipedia.

Alexandra Hilton Hotel

We had made plans to remain in Barcelona for several days, and had selected the Alexandra Hilton Hotel on Carrer de Mallorca as our place to stay. The hotel is just a few meters away from Rambla de Catalunya, which turns into La Rambla as you get nearer to the harbor. The hotel is also approximately 2 kilometers away from the La Sagrada Familia, which was on our "must see" list. Very nicely situated hotel, very modern, quiet & comfortable - the staff there are very polite and helpful & speak excellent english.
NOTE: The Rambla de Catalunya is a wide boulevard with a large island in the center of the road, which contains a number of of nice sidewalk cafes & pubs. It is one of the city's trendiest streets, with many international fashion shops, and is lined with lime trees. The street stretches from Plaça de Catalunya to Avinguda Diagonal, a distance of some 1.3 kilometres.

NOTE: Images are the property of Hilton Hotels

Barcelona Harbor

Image # 1 (left side) gives you some idea of the size of the Barcelona Harbor, it is comprised of; an industrial/commercial (freighter/cargo ships) area, a large area devoted to Cruise Ships, and a marina area for smaller vessels.

Barcelona cruise port is currently ranked the largest Mediterranean cruise port with turnaround operations (roundtrip itineraries) and the World's 4th busiest port.

The building in the lower center of image # 1 (left side) is the Barcelona World Trade Center, shown in image # 2 (right side).
NOTE: Images are the property of Cruise Mapper

Our first destination (after dropping off our luggage at the hotel) was the Sagrada Familia. The Familia is located 2.1 kilometers north-east of our hotel, and we could walk there all the way on the Carrer de Mallorca.

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família ("Expiatory Church of the Holy Family") is a large unfinished Roman Catholic church in Barcelona. Designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), his work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica.
NOTE: Click here to watch a video we made of this church and area.

 Sagrada Família Quick History Lesson 

In 1882, construction of Sagrada Família began under architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. In 1883, when Villar resigned, Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted the remainder of his life to the project, and he is buried in the crypt. At the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, when he was run down by a tram, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

Relying solely on private donations, Sagrada Familia's construction progressed slowly and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, revolutionaries set fire to the crypt and broke their way into the workshop, partially destroying Gaudí's original plans, drawings and plaster models, which led to 16 years work to piece together the fragments of the master model. Construction resumed to intermittent progress in the 1950s. Advancements in technologies such as computer aided design and computerised numerical control (CNC) have since enabled faster progress and construction past the midpoint in 2010. However, some of the project's greatest challenges remain, including the construction of ten more spires, each symbolising an important Biblical figure in the New Testament. It is anticipated that the building can be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

The basilica has a long history of splitting opinion among the residents of Barcelona: over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona's cathedral, over Gaudí's design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí's death disregarded his design, and the 2007 proposal to build a tunnel of Spain's high-speed rail link to France which could disturb its stability. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said "it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art", and Paul Goldberger describes it as "the most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages".

 The above information was extracted from Wikipedia.

The building had a "street fair" kind of thing going on near the entrance, where groups of people were forming "human pyramids", throwing people into the air and catching them, vendors were selling souvenirs, etc. Our goal was to purchase tickets and go inside the building - but watching these groups perform was entertaining!

Our morning's first adventure was a walk to the Casa Batlló, tt was designed by Antoni Gaudí (the architect of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família & the mosaics of Park Güell), and is considered one of his masterpieces. A remodel of a previously built house, it was redesigned in 1904 by Gaudí and has been refurbished several times after that. Gaudí's assistants Domènec Sugrañes i Gras, Josep Canaleta and Joan Rubió also contributed to the renovation project. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as it has a visceral, skeletal organic quality.
Click here to view books about Antoni Gaudi on the Amazon Site.

La Rambla

Our hotel was just a few meters from the Rambla de Catalunya, which as you walk towards the harbor, eventually turns into La Rambla the famous shopping district. The street name change takes place at the Plaça de Catalunya, and then La Rambla continues all the way to the Mirador de Colom which is adjacent to the Harbor.

The tree-lined central promenade of La Rambla is crowded during the day and until late in the night. Its origins as a watercourse are reflected in the paving design, which appears to ripple like water. Along the promenade's length are kiosks that sell newspapers and souvenirs, other kiosks selling flowers, street traders, performers, and pavement cafes and bars. Several notable sights are also located within the promenade, including a mosaic by Joan Miró and the Font de Canaletes, a fountain and popular meeting point.

Along the Rambla are historic buildings such as the Palace of the Virreina and the Liceu Theatre (Liceo in Spanish), in which operas and ballets are staged. The La Boqueria market opens off the Rambla and is one of the city's foremost tourist landmarks, housing a very diverse selection of goods.
Click here to read a good Wiki Article about this famous area.

Image property of Sergil via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

We saw dogs everywhere we went in Barcelona, sometimes in groups, most often singly. There was even a dog park next to the Sagrada Familia. Obviously people in Barcelona are fond of dogs, and because we are too, we decided to show these images!
Because we continually saw dogs everywhere we went, we took the time to look up the statistics. As you can see in the graph, dog ownership in Europe (according to STATISTA.COM) is very popular and Spain ranks considerably lower than we expected, especially since we were seeing so many dogs everywhere we went!
Click here to go to the STATISTA.COM page to read more.

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