Barcelona Travel Guide: Feeling Gaudi

Hola Bloggy Friends,

On the roof of Casa Milà

Picasso isn't the only great artist celebrated in Barcelona. In fact, compared to architectural visionary Antoni Gaudi, his presence is minimal. Gaudi, whose name the English word "gaudy" originates from, made a name for himself designing outlandish structures throughout the city that are made up of whimsical shapes and forms that may look like tacky multicolored ice cream cones, but in fact, are scientifically thought out and shockingly ahead of his time.

To see for ourselves what all the hoopla is about, we devoted our final full day in Barcelona to a tour of some of his most famous works — most of which are situated in the busy Eixample (pronounced eye-sham-plah) neighborhood. We started at the guidebook-recommended Casa Milà, an eccentric apartment building that was built between 1905 and 1912. The tour included a peek into one of the large, tastefully decorated apartments, cave-like attic and peculiar rooftop decorated with what appears to be Stormtrooper heads on spikes and huge dollops of soft serve. What we learned along the way, though, was that Gaudi drew his inspiration from nature – particularly things from the sea like conch shells and sand dollars. It was tacky as all get out, but fascinating, nonetheless.

Barcelona Travel Guide: Absorbing the city's spirit

Hola Bloggy Amigos,

Infanta Margarita María

Today we decided to get to know our neighborhood better by sticking to the side streets that zigzag around us. Our first stop was one of my favorite experiences so far, the Museo Picasso. This modern complex within an old stone building houses an impressive collection of the artist's work from his early teens through the 1970s. There's nothing super famous here, but it's fascinating to see the talent he had as a young person living in Spain, and witness his progression to Cubism in the early part of the century. Our favorite part was his comprehensive studies of Velázquez's Las Meninas. This included around 20 mostly colorful, abstract interpretations of the famous painting. I loved seeing the characters all cubed up; he spent a lot of time on the girl in the center (pictured right), particularly.

Barcelona Travel Guide: Braving the tourist meccas

Hola Bloggy Friends,

Our Spanish window

This morning we started our day with the customary bowl of oatmeal and yogurt, and a steamy cup of coffee. We love having a kitchen to be able to avoid the cost of buying breakfast every day. Thankfully, it's equipped with all the dishes, silverware and coffee-making apparatuses we need.

With the help of our guide book, we decided to take a tour of the Barri Gòtic, or the Gothic section of Barcelona. This included the busy city square, Plaça de Catalunya, and a stroll down Avinguda Portal de el'Angel — both too touristy for my taste. The highlight, for me, was a tour of the ornate Catedral de Barcelona, which was built around the sarcophagus of Barcelona's patron saint, Eulalia, a thirteen-year-old girl who was tortured and murdered by Romans because of her Christian beliefs. This is also the site where six Native Americans were baptized when they came to Spain with Christopher Columbus.

Trip to Spain: Flying and Arriving

Buenos Noches, Bloggy Friends,

We made it to Madrid safe and sound this morning at 7 a.m. The plane ride was nice, especially considering I was woozed up on a cocktail of Adavan, three glasses of wine and Ambien. Not surprisingly, I got off the plane feeling a little off-kilter — kind of like if you had a wine hangover and decided to go for a spin on the Tilt-a-Whirl. I managed to stay on my own two feet, though, as we made the trek through  Madrid's modern airport to customs.

From MAD, we hopped on a snazzy-looking yellow bus that took us to the Atocha train station in the Barrio de las Letras area of Madrid. Once we oriented ourselves within the station and put our luggage in lockers, we went out to do some exploring before our 1:30 p.m. train to Barcelona.