New Years Day we all met up at El Tigre to grab some food. Rebecca and I only went once in the day, the boys went twice. On the second Rebecca and I caught an early flight to Barcelona. Although I´m not really fond of Barcelona because I find it too much like LA and too touristy, I decided to go with Rebecca to give it a second shot. The last time I had gone to Barcelona I think that it was overwhelming in the fact that the program constantly took us different places. Because we had a limited amount of time last time I visited it was a constant influx of info that was just a little too much to handle. This time I planned to walk around a little more to see what Barcelona apart from Gaudi was.
Our Hostel wouldn´t let us in when we got there so we wandered a little bit. Its a very large hostel that sometimes hosts groups. They give you free breakfast as well as free acess to the gym next door which also had a pool. Although it didn´t really have a common area or a lot of character, it was a pretty good hostel.
We went to see the Cathdral as soon as we got in and then tried to find the History of the city Museum, which for the life of us we could not find eventhough we walked around it a bunch of times. Every map we had gave us a different perspective of where we were in terms of how far away sights were from each other and how to get there. Some didn´t have all the streets labled and some were just plain wrong. We went to the very modern Santa Cristina´s Market which has a roof that looks like it came from the same architect that designed Barajas airport T4 in Madrid. We ended up walking past the Arc de Triompf and past the Natural history museum. We went for lunch at a Cafeteria after trying to find a place that wasn´t too horribly touristy. I had an amazing pan seared steak (it might have helped that I was REALLY hungry) and Rebecca had one of the largest Spansih tortillas ever. After lunch I went to the chocolate museum and she went to the Naval and Textile Museum. THe chocolate museum was cool because they give you chocolate with your ticket and then there is a history of chocolate and some impressive art pieces made of chocolate (see the pictures in the shutterfly album). The strange part of the museum was that it somehow got to talking about FC Barcelona sports club. And then went back to talking about chocolates. The museum is connected to a pastry school and they have demostrations in the same building.
After the chocolate museum I went back to the Natural science museum because they advertised something like a murder mystery inside. Turns out that its is a huge interactive exhibit where you get clues to follow about a case that they created and you have to try and solve the murder. They take you through genetics testing, and material testing, and testimonials from the suspects and forensics and shoe prints, and ballistics and everything that you see people do on CSI. If I had had more time it would have been really exciting, but I was in a rush to see that exhibit and go to the permanent exhibit. What is fun is at the end of the murder case exhibit, you don´t find out who did it. (well fun and frustrating) you say who you think did it and then your vote gets added into the votes of other people.
After I finished with the special exhibit I went upstairs to see the permanent exhibit. It was kind of like being inside some crazy old scienc professor´s laboratory because all of the animals that were there were very old, and looked like they have been through a lot. It also is freezing cold and smells like preserved critters. Some of their animals were very interesting. They had a whole row of gigantic birds and they had butterflies. They had the animal, its name, where it could be found and if it was extinct or endangered. They also had the species, homo sapian...which can aparently be found ALL over the world...;-)
After the Natural Science Museum, I met up with Alvar, our exchange student from ten years ago who we saw over the summer when he came with Google to Ca. He was home in Barcelona visiting his family for vacation. We walked up and down La Rambla, the large touristy street in Barcelona.
The following day we went very early to the Sagrada Familia. It is still as impressive and looksl like it still hasn´t changed in the two years since I last saw it. We went up the elevator to the top and then walked the stairs down. It was fun to get a different view of the cathedral. We also went under the cathedral to see the museum. After the cathedral we went over to Sant Cugat where our family friends live and had lunch with them.
Later in the evening we tried to get into a FC Barcelona football match, but scalpers were selling tickets at regular prices so we decided not to go.
The following day we had amazing weather for our visit to Parc Güell, the park commmunity that Gaudi designed but never finished. We definatley lucked out because the whole rest of the trip was more overcast and gloomy except for the day we went to Parc Güell. We went by way of public transit and had to climb up the hill to get to the park. There is a series of escalators and stairwells that lead up to the back entrance which give you great views of the city.
We took the AVE train back to Madrid on the morning of the 5th to be back in the city in time for the Three Kings Parade. There were so many people out for the parade that it was hard to see anything. I was able to watch part of it on TV and then we went out to see it live. It ended in Plaza Cibeles with a speech given by the Reyes and then fireworks. I was very happy to see so many fireworks in a short amount of time.
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