It was a long drive getting here from Calpe, but when we arrived we received a warm welcome: our first visitor! Our friend Carlos (aka: Los) had decided to tag along for some of our Spain wanderings and had actually beat us to Barcelona due to various wrong turns and other typical delays. Barcelona was going to be a long stop for us, and because there was now three of us to house, we thought that getting an apartment here was appropriate. Man were we ready for it too. After driving around for a couple of weeks and staying 2 nights here and there, having a kitchen and dining/living area was going to be a relief. Unfortunately the place that we rented did not have a washing machine (despite the web ad), but at least it was quiet and at a great location: two blocks off of Las Ramblas pedestrian walk.
We had 7 days to work with in Barcelona, so it was quite nice seeing things at a more relaxed pace. The city is (or seemed at least) much bigger than Madrid, and required more time to walk around… especially true since most of the famous things to see here are the exquisite architectural structures. We started off just kind of strolling around Las Ramblas, checking out the people and street performers lining the walkway. It’s a surprisingly long walk covering a large stretch of the city and Los was a good sport despite severe jet lag. We had let him take an hour nap which might have done more harm than good. His eyes actually hurt from getting waken up so early and abruptly! In the end though jetlag was not an issue as Los became more of a night owl than even we were: more on this later.
Our goal for the first full day was to go on one of these Fatbike tours of the city. This was supposed to give us a good overview of the city in a more interactive way than going on a bus tour. Alas, it was not meant to be as we grossly overslept from partying the night before. I guess Los stayed up long enough to roll over into Pacific daylight time on his body clock. So instead of an 11am bike tour, we decided to take a 1pm walking tour of Parc Güell and some of Gaudí’s famous architecture. Parc Güell is an outdoor park that was originally intended to be a suburb of Barcelona complete with houses and outdoor common areas. Turns out the people of Barcelona had no desire to live in the suburbs no matter how nice the parks and the views. The business endeavor was a huge failure. Now, the area is dedicated as an open access park, donated to the city by the Güell family. And what a park it is… spectacularly sculpted and landscaped with some of Gaudí’s coolest designs. The whole thing looks like an acid trip inspired by some Alice in Wonderland Disneyland ride. Or maybe it’s the other way around? Hmmm. Anyway the ceramic tiled buildings, plazas, etc. are a beautiful sight to behold.
The next day we (barely) made it out to Plaza Juame to start the Fatbike tour that we missed the day before. I’m glad we made it. Seeing the city by bicycle was perfect for covering a lot of ground without completely killing our feet. We had a lot of fun and the the tour was much more interactive as we had an actual guide to listen to and ask questions of. Our guide “Buster” gave us some good tips on sights to see and places to eat that weren’t too expensive. We went to a tapas bar that night and ran into a couple that we met on the tour. I guess that we weren’t the only ones to take Buster’s advice! Stumbling out of the bar we wandered around and totally stumbled into a neighborhood block party. There was a DJ and tons of people dancing and guys selling cans of San Miguel beer for 1 Euro. What a great time! The best part was that I think the whole thing was some sort of fundraiser to restore the local church, so we did all of this partying right in front of the church in the wee hours of the morning. Too funny!
Woke up late the next day (surprising, I know), and headed out to Barcelonita for a spot of sun and swimming at the beach. The beaches here are a bit of an anomaly as they are all man made, but they are definitely nice enough. The sand was clean and fine and the water was cold but calm: great from swimming. One thing that took getting used to was all of the topless sunbathers on the beach (ok… this was easy to get used to for me and Los). I heard somewhere that it is perfectly legal to be completely nude in public here, as long as it isn’t creating a disturbance. Los brah: we’re not in California no more! :)
The other days here start to blend in my mind at this point: a combination of too much beer, sangría, and rough mornings. One thing that I should mention is that we did go to visit the famous Gaudí landmark: Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (la Sagrada Família for short). I know it’s expensive. I know it gets crowded. I know it’s not even finished and there’s scaffolding everywhere. It was still worth the view. Ana and I are getting good at timing these sorts of thing, so we showed up in typical fashion right as the Temple opened at 9am. We had the whole place to ourselves for a few minutes and didn’t have to wait in line at all to go see the top of the bell towers. The building itself is simply awe inspiring, even only partially complete. It’s definitely the most beautifully lit church I've ever seen, and the columns and ceilings are wonderfully organic… conjuring up impressions of taking a stroll through a very tall forest. And this is just on the inside. Outside, the building is marvelously decorated by intricate, ornate, and simply interesting sculpture everywhere the eye can see. In my opinion, this will be an architectural masterpiece without peer when completed.
The actual history of Barcelona and Catalonia in general is super interesting… lots of tension with with the rest of Spain stemming from the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. Click Here for a Wikipedia recap. Highly recommended reading.
Check out the pictures over at picasaweb:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Barcelona
…also here is a link to Barcelona on a map for the geographically inquiring mind:
Click Here for map of Barcelona, Spain
One last stop before we head out of Spain and back to the states for a spell: Segovia. Segovia is one of the cool little medieval towns outside of Madrid that desperately clings to a fortified hill in hopes of protecting itself from invading Moors, Christians, Visigoths, Hobbits, American tourists, and what not. It is famous for a couple of landmarks: a nearly 2000 year old Roman Aqueduct and a 19th century alcazar fortress which was supposedly the inspiration for Walt Disney’s fairy-tale castles. Not that we had much time or space to see them as we somehow managed to wander into yet another festival. I know what you’re thinking right now Jason Beck: “you’re killing me Mosko!” Not so J… we really had no idea this was going on! I guess that the Spaniards really need very little excuse to throw a party. I can see it already: Some town leaders sitting at a bar start drinking beers and talking and come to the conclusion “It’s June… Let’s throw a week long party!”. Brilliant! So we ditched our plans to tone it down and relax and headed out to the live outdoor concert that was being held in front of the Cathedral(!!) that night. 
The band was pretty cool: some sort of a mash-up of Spanish rock and Celtic music complete with bagpipes, flutes, and fiddles. Click Here to have a listen to what Celtas Cortos sounds like. The concert didn’t start until 12:30am, but it was packed with people none the less. Everyone was just out having a good time, and all of the restaurants converted into outdoor walk-up bars which was super convenient. :) People dancing in the street… People dancing on balconies… Good times, good times. 
The festival ended with some fireworks over the city. Since we were staying outside of the city anyway at the Parador de Segovia, we headed back early and watched the show with the city as a backdrop. Nice.
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