Our hotel was located on La Rambla.
Next 2 photos: La Rambla in both directions at 7 a.m.
By mid-morning, it looked like the next 2 photos and by evening you could barely find room to walk. It was well-patrolled.
In the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of Barcelona, there were narrow streets and even some quiet places.
This was a lovely oasis
Signs in both Catalan and Spanish, both Greek to me ;)
Many choices for interesting places to visit
Hmmm....which way?
Getting around is easy with these rental bikes. In Paris they were free for the first half hour, so all you had to do was arrange your bike time around drop-off points and just exchange bikes every half hour. Free!
All visitors to Barcelona want to see Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Construction began in 1872 and completion of the building and all its decorative elements is estimated to be in 2030 or 2032
Much of Barcelona is Gaudi-inspired.
Dancing is a big part of Catalan culture.
This is the Sardana Dancers sculpture.
We saw folk dancers in Montserrat later on.
Montjuic is a hill in south-west Barcelona with a fine view over the harbour. There is a palace, a park, a botanical garden, a cemetery, an Olympic venue which is used for various performances, an Art Museum and lots of bicycle paths, so lots to see and do when there. The hill can be accessed via a funicular which is part of the Barcelona Metro and by a gondola.
Montjuic Hill is also famous for a scientific reason. In 1794, although France and Spain were technically at war, French astronomers measured the meridian arc between Dunkirk and the Montjuic Fortress which also passes through Paris and were then able, using the latitudes of the two cities, to measure the distance between the equator and the North Pole, thereby deriving the unit of measure called the metre which is defined as one ten-millionth of that distance.
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On another note, our hotel elevator was highly mirrored and I never boarded it without thinking there was somebody else in there even though it was usually only me. Always gave me a bit of a start.
Took a selfie ;)
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