9AM bright, early and full of sunshine, we ventured off to a free tour of Barcelona.
On the way to the meeting point, my friend, Ali and I took a quick stop at a local coffee place called
Cafe Cappuccino.
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| Cappuccino with a Chocolate Almond Croissant Chocolate intake #2 |
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Our tour guide was a Scottish girl who had lived in Barcelona for a year to help her with her Spanish. Well little did she know (and what I discovered too), was that Barcelona Spanish is different, so we like understood each other.
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| The Palace in Barcelona |
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| The Courtyard in the Palace |
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| The backside of the cathedral in Barcelona |
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| The Barcelona Cathedral. |
Storytime: The martyr for this cathedral is Saint Eulàlia. Eulàlia was a 13 year old young girl was a devout Catholic who suffered during the Roman times in the city of Barcelona. She suffered 13 times, representing her age of 13 years, but each suffering she survived until she was decapitated.
This cathedral is dedicated to her.
Right across from the cathedral is this painting created by Pablo Picasso, and this painting was a rebellion under the rule of Francisco Franco.
You can't really see it because of the bushes and people, but there are bronze letters which spell out
Barceloneta, which what Barcelona was named during the Roman rule.
Another church in Barcelona that was created in, I forget what century, but it looks like it was made from the 10th century.
This pine tree sits next to the church and stays up until it withers and is replaced every couple of years and is never cut down.
(I forget the reason as to why there is a pine tree, so I apologize)
The Jewish streets of Barcelona where the Jews resided during the ruling of Franco.
The 3 above pictures show a small quiet peaceful plaza that was our tour guide's favorite place.
In this plaza is a children's school during the ruling of Franco, and the school still resides today.
Now if you look closely at this wall, you can see dents. These dents are the remains of bullets and bombs that were shot and dropped here during the Spanish Civil War.
Unfortunately, this peaceful beautiful palace was bombed during that time, including the children's school and about 20 children died during the bombing.
The dents remain as a remembrance of what happened to the children and the people that died on that fateful day.
This is where we stopped at had a break from the tour and if you can see on the left side there is a shop called "Enrique Tomas" where again I got Jamón Iberico Sandwich
Ugh, so good.
This street Carrer de les Dames was once where the ocean used to be.
Legend has it that the sailors that went to sea, made a deal with God that if they survived the strong winds at sea that they will marry the first women they see when they land.
So of course, single women who were desperate for a husband, knew this and would wait at the shore for the sailors in hopes of getting a husband.
Intense right?
But better than Match.com or Tinder I would say.
Where I'm sitting is actually a grave of those who died during the War of Succession in Barcelona. A period in time that the people of Barcelona take very seriously.
So naturally I sat down (also because my tour guide told me too) and took a picture shown below.
Whispers: "I sit on dead people...."
After the 2 hour tour, we ventured off to see the famous "La Sagrada Familia" Church made by the famous architect Gaudi.
And that's all I'm going to say, I'll just let the pictures speak for itself.
Just like the Jamón Iberico, take a trip to Barcelona and see this church.
It's 11 Euros but it's completely worth it.
Breathtakingly beautiful.
After walking around the church for an hour, at freaking out because it was 3:30 and still daylight, we took a pit stop to get the delicious, mouthwatering Churros Con Chocolate.
Thick, fried donut like strips covered in sugar and dipped in thick hot chocolate
Again, just go to Spain and get these.
Chocolate intake #3.
