We have found one of the best ways to learn about a city's layout, landmarks and history is by taking one of the "red bus" hop-on-hop-off tours. In
Barcelona, they have two routes (East and West) and the buses run from 9AM-8PM. Our strategy is to get an early start, ride the bus, listen to the guide and decide if there are any places we want to visit at a later time. And so Wednesday was the day we committed to being tourist. The weather was not very pleasant, but we were prepared and started with the East route.
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| Beginning of the tour was moderately sunny so we sat up top. |
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| Another view of Placa Catalayuna in the middle of Barcelona. |
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| View of city street |
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| View of Port Vell. |
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| Port Vell and Mont Juic. |
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| Quirky statue in the middle of the channel. |
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| View of the Gothic District. |
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| Not a very nice day for the beach.... |
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| The two tallest buildings in Barcelona. |
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| The Gold Fish structure. |
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The Olympics were held here in 1992 and during that time,
flags from all the countries flew from the white poles lining the street. |
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| Sculpture at the entrance to the flag area. |
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| Beginning of the nude beach. (Sorry, no sights to post.) |
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| View of the road running along the beach. |
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| Barcelona soccer team practicing. (2011 Champions.) |
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| Diagonal building. |
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| One of the old bull rings. Barcelona outlawed bullfighting in 2010. |
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| La Sagrada Familia. A beautiful church designed by Antoni Gaudi. |
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| The church is undergoing major external renovations., |
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| Casa Botllo. A residence designed by Gaudi. |
Time for a lunch break! Oddly enough, hot dogs/sausages/bratwursts are very popular in Spain. And so we thought we'd give it a try for lunch.
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| Yummy french fries with a "diet fork". (A tiny fork/pick.) |
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| Bratwurst on the left and a "classic" frankfurter in a grilled bun on the right. |
After our brief stop for for nourishment, we hopped on the bus for the West route.
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| Statue of Columbus. |
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| View down one of the many pedestrian friendly streets. |
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| Scultpure near the entrance to the port and beaches. |
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| Cactus garden along the hillside on the way to Mountjuic. |
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| View of the city from the hillside. |
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| Can you spot the significant landmarks? |
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| Olympic Stadium with the torch. |
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| Glimpse inside the stadium. |
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| A very artistic telecom tower. (Supposed to be a runner crossing the tape/line.) |
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| Poble Espana. Designed for the 1929 World Fair turned outdoor museum and shopping area. |
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| National Palace |
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| Venetian towers and entrance to Plaza Espana. |
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| Barcelona Fair. |
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| One of the many beautiful statues around the city. |
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| Another bull ring, but this one has been retrofitted and turned into a mall! |
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| Train station where we arrived on Tuesday. |
And so, that concludes our city tour of Barcelona. It was a full day, and inspite of the less-than-sunny weather, a great way to learn about the city and it's history.
