COSTA LUMINOSA CRUISE: BARCELONA (LEG 2)

Welcome to the second half of our Barcelona getaway. To give you a recap of our first leg, we started at the Agencia Estatal de Administration Tributaria, walked, Estatua de Colon, walked, Las Ramblas, walked, petiks mode, La Boqueria, walked, photos here and there, Font de Canaletes, walked, then finally H&M.

Allow us to show you how far we've walked this time.

In this second and final leg, we had a total of 8 stops.

 
And because we kind of wasted quite a significant amount of our time making unnecessary stops in the first leg, we promised ourselves to make use of our remaining hours in Barcelona wisely.



1. Plaça de Catalunya

Plaça de Catalunya is the main square in Barcelona and is considered to be its city center. From Las Ramblas, you'll immediately see the Francesc Macià i Llussà Monument

We had to cross Plaça de Catalunya in order for us to reach our second stop.

Like any other plaza, square or park in Europe- pigeons abound.

Macy, being Ornithophobic would rather walk outside the area of Placa de Catalunya just to avoid the birds. So Macy and Karol agreed that they'll meet at the other side of the Placa. The purple mark on the map is Macy while the pink mark is Karol.  See the long distance Macy endured just so she wouldn't have to face her enemies? Good thing she has her new pair of boots from H&M, she was able to walk comfortably.

Macy also took her time taking photos. Good thing she didn't stop to shop at El Corte Ingles.

On the other hand Karol took photos of people having a grand time with the pigeons. Nice view eh?

Finally after 15 minutes both reached their meeting spot right in front of Banco Español de Crédito.

Karol and Macy promised to each other that they would not waste any more time. No more banjing or petiks moment! Moving on to the next stop..

2. Rotonda Universitat

After Plaça de Catalunya, we then crossed  Rotonda Universitat.  Check out our shadows in the picture. Yup that's us!

Even though there's actually nothing really special with the rotunda, it was still interesting.

To show you how interesting this rotunda was, look at this photo of a group of 'bumberos'.  It is quite amusing (for us Filipinos) to know that in Barcelona, they call them "Bombers"!

Even if we only got just a few more hours left in this city, we still took the time to observe the place and the people especially.

How sweet!

3.  Casa Batlló

Thanks to Macy's exceptional navigational skills, we've finally reached Casa Batlló. 

Built in 1877 and restored by the famous modernisme architect, Antoni Gaudí and Josep Jujol. It is locally called Casa dels Ossos or House of Bones.

The façade of the building is a kind of Modernisme mosaic called Trencadís and is made of broken ceramic tiles.

As much as we'd like to explore Casa Battló, we just didn't have much time left. Besides the queue was too long.

So we just took photos from the center island of Passeig de Gracia :)

Of course, we didn't forget Chuppy :)

Right across Casa Batlló is an interesting building as well. Is it art or just a bunch of messed up wires? Haha!

4. La Pedrera

Also known as Casa Milà and designed by Catalan Architect, Antoni Gaudí, La Pedrera means 'The Stone Quarry' because of its curvy grey façade.

Again, we would've wanted to explore this great Gaudi structure but due to time constraint (we could only spare 10 minutes of our time inside) and the wee bit expensive entrance fee, we opted not to.  Besides, the public art exhibit was fascinating too.

5. La Baguetina Catalana

Just a few steps away from La Pedrera is the La Baguetina Catalana. Nope, this is neither some historical place with an exotic sounding name nor a Modernisme creation. It's a cafeteria selling breads, pasta and drinks. We had to make a stopover otherwise we'd die. We were so hungry and parched by this time.

photo from Google Maps

They got pizzas, sandwiches, chips, ice cream, paella and sangria. Thank heavens there were a lot to choose from! BUT, we must stay focused and we must not waste time. We needed to hurry up at the same time we needed lots of energy and so we must eat like a carpenter (kain karpintero).  Seriously, we badly needed to refuel after all the walking. Besides, the last meal we ate was at the cruise ship hours ago.

We did not forget to take photos :)

And most importantly, we also did not forget to order dessert, the Crema Catalana. Yum yum yum, delicioso!

Karol also needed some time to fix her head gear.

And this is when we saw what's across the street, that led us to our 6th stop...

photo from Google Maps

6. Hermes

photo from Google Maps

We know this is not included in our itinerary but Karol was having a bit of a problem while on the cruise. She accidentally left her black/gold belt in Manila and according to her she badly needed one. Macy, thinking that she would definitely never hear the end of it, pointed to an Hermes store. 

After 45 minutes, problem solved!

The moment we left Hermes, we realized we only got 2 hours to spare! This is when the real chaos began!  Macy ditched her guidebook, hurriedly hailed a taxi and immediately blurted the name of our next stop. To hell with walking, it was crunch time!

7. La Sagrada Familia

Thankfully, the driver dropped us off right in front of the church, got our cameras and fired away! Woohoo!

An Art Nouveau structure designed by Antoni Gaudí, construction started in 1882. At the time of Gaudí's death in 1926, the church was only 20% finished. And so construction continued, interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, then resumed and up to this day it is still under construction.  Estimated year of completion is 2026, the centennial of Gaudí's death.  We didn't know then that we were at the 'new' side of the church. That's why this side appeared to be really clean as opposed to the melting dark candle façade of the old side.

While we were shooting away with our cameras a lolo approached us and began talking in Catalan. He's cute and we thought he was just being friendly. Blah blah blah he continued. After 5 minutes or so he was about to leave, he shook Macy's hand to bid her farewell then pulled and kissed her! WTF!!! To Macy's dismay, Karol caught everything on camera. Macy then immediately pointed to Karol and said, 'Kiss her too!' Haha it was Macy's turn with the camera. What a souvenir from Barcelona!

After our experience with lolo, we came to our senses that it's getting late and we still have to go to our last stop.  

We tried getting a cab but it seemed like all of them were somewhere else. Must be the rush hour! Finally, after so long, we found one and off we flew.

8. Parc Güell

A garden complex designed by the genius that is Antoni Gaudí, it is situated on a hill in the Càrmel district.

A gingerbread house-like structure greeted us at the entrance.

In true Gaudi style, there are Trencadís everywhere.

Pardon the bad quality photos, it was nearing darkness. 

Too bad we couldn't stay at Parc Guell, it would've been nice to lounge around and have a picnic. Back to reality, we had to go back to the cruise ship on time! We tried to find a taxi outside Parc Guell but there wasn't a single cab in sight.  We started to get nervous! We started to run down the hill leading to the main road just to hail a taxi.  Gladly there was one available :) whew! 

Here's Macy smiling, not a trace of panic.

We're happy and thankful that we've conquered the rush hour traffic and made it to the shuttle :) At the same time we're sad about leaving Barcelona.  It is such a beautiful, colorful and vibrant city rich in so many ways.  It was also disappointing that we didn't get to savour authentic Catalan food, didn't get to shop at La Boqueria, didn't get to explore Casa Batllo, La Pedrera and Parc Guell. We would've wanted to just stare and be amazed by the Sagrada Familia church. In short, we're nabitin. 

So because we didn't drink the water from Font de Canaletes, does that mean we wouldn't be able to go back to Barcelona? Hope that isn't true, keeping our fingers and toes crossed. :)