Barcelona

Spain is a country that I like a lot - the food, the people,  the language - and when we got the opportunity to spend a few days in Barcelona, we did not hesitate at all. It was February, the huge tourist crowds were missing most probably because the weather was a little bit chilly, but in my opinion great for sightseeing. It had rented a room in an apartment 10min away from the famous  tourist street - La Rambla.Two days are not at all enough for seeing Barca, but this was all we had. So we decided to start with the most popular landmarks - Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, Arc de Triomf, Columbus Monument. We had a tourist map so it was easy to get around, preferably by foot, only to Parc Güell we took the bus as it was quite a walk. The park itself is great, it was designed by Gaudy and it is part of the UNESCO world heritage, and from the top there is a magnificent view over the city 'garnished' with flying parrots amongst the palm trees

Unfortunately Sagrada Familia was still under construction, and it will remain so till 2032 when according to the plan it should be completed. In 1926 when Gaudy dies, the work on the building is stopped but later with thanks to private funding started again. During the construction of the cathedral Gaudy was so obsessed with it that he moved to a small house next to the site. Before his death only one out of twelve towers was completed. Till now (2013 when we were there) only eight were build and still it looked impressive.

The lane by the ocean next to Columbus monument is great for walks and relaxation as well as drinking beer in the heat, or if you do not feel like resting there is a mall. We are not shopping fans so we visited the mall 'by necessity' but we gladly paid our respects to the 'Estrella' under the palm trees

 We really wanted to have paella with spanish wine for dinner but even though we were not in the main tourist season it took us quite some time to find a free table. To be honest i did not like the paella as much as the one i tried in Alicante but the wine was awesome. While we walked at La Rambla we could not fight the urge to go to the local food market. Good that we just had dinner otherwise i have no idea how to resist the temptations over there. And still i bought a small fruit for desert :) The other great thing was that on the street they sell sliced 'hamon' or in english they call it 'Iberian acorn ham' which goes great with their wine :)

We saved the Arc de Triomf for last (i have the feeling that every major tourist city has to have an acr). The sun was shining so nice, the parrots were happily flying around the palm trees and we had to catch the plane....