#EJCtour2013: Part 2, Barcelona

See my previous post: #EJCtour2013: Part 1, London and Rome

Barcelona is love in first sight!
Took a train from rome termini to flumicino airport > then a domestic flight of two hours to Barcelona.

Stayed 3 nights at BWH Ramblas V,
Barcelona Carrer de Sant Pau 8
08001 Barcelona

The apartment is lovely! With balconies, and it’s located just 5 minutes’ walk from Las Ramblas. Its stylish apartments with free Wi-Fi. There is a large living room with a dining area. The kitchenette comes with a microwave, fridge, coffee maker and oven. Best is there’s a washing machine and dryer! Our X number of days’ dirty clothes are in rescues!

There is a range of shops in the streets surrounding the apartments. Best with Carrefour just 5 minutes walk away, minimart just downstairs of the apartment! The apartment itself already made us love the place, bonus with whole streets of shops are on “SUMMER SALES”! Moreover I’m a sucker for ZARA!

We started our evening with shopping! How sinful? Because, it’s unavoidable to the shops with SALES here and there! We are situated at the heart of shopping area! Had a quick bite along the way where we roam, saw this kebab stall just downstairs of our apartment smelling really good. Can’t remember what’s the shop called. :X

Barcelona is Spain's second largest city with their signature Mosaic-speckled facades!

Started our day 2 early, as we anticipated that we will get lost! Wanted to check out the Bus Turístic, but did a small calculation, the number of places we want to go and allows us to go are pretty limited as we don’t have a lot of time to visit so many attraction in a day, it’s convenience but we thought of finding our ways there on our own instead! So looking at the map, and we started off basking through all the shops first!

Arrived Casa Batlló, it is a renowned building located in the heart of Barcelona and is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. Casa Batlló is a remodel of a previously built house. One of the strangest residential buildings in Europe, this is Gaudí at his hallucinogenic best. The facade, sprinkled with bits of blue, mauve and green tiles and studded with wave-shaped window frames and balconies, rises to an uneven blue-tiled roof with a solitary tower.
All the curves, colours and nuances of colours! Sad that we didn’t managed to visit inside because the tickets are overly priced, we thought the view from the outside was amazing enough. Incredible architect and I will visit there again one day!

We walked to Barcelona Cathedral thereafter!
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, also known as Barcelona Cathedral, is the Gothic cathedral and seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona, Spain. The Cathedral of Barcelona is comprised of three naves, but just a single apse and ambulatory. The naves have five sections: that closest to the façade is the longest in order to accommodate the dimensions of the cimborio, which is adjacent to the main entrance. There the beautiful gothic cathedral with stained glass windows dating back 500 years.

There’s a small scale of flea market just beside the Cathedral, selling antique stuff like written/yellowish postcards which look really good with all pretty cursive handwriting, watches, displays and many more..

Spending most of our time roaming the street and got amazed by all the architecture in Barcelona. Their architecture are remarkable and impressive! Love anything there.

The times in Europe are light-hearted! Blithe disregard for the rules of the road! We take our own sweet time enjoying the air, the time spent together and taking coffee and tea during the day. How I’m missing it there!

Since Carrefour is just few blocks down the road, we decided to cook our meals together in our cosy apartment~ A budget and simple meal and we are contented! Rice…... yesh! Especially when I’m a rice lover! Haha.

Bought some spices and sauce to marinate our drumsticks, and I fried the eggs to add on!
There, my legend of the eggs: 1 broke, 1 leaked, and 1 perfect. Ah-ha!

Bought some beers for the night, we thought we won’t drink much. But end up we went down to buy more beers. Tried walking to the back of our apartment, though it’s late, but the streets are all lighted up and it’s not scary as we thought it is. There’s a small mini-mart, that sells all kinds of beer! So we tried on those recommended by the shop uncle.
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Looking forward to the Sagrada Familia on the following day. Was so impressed by this church already while I’m reading on the history before coming here.

La Sagrada Família inspires awe by its sheer verticality, and in the manner of the medieval cathedrals it emulates, it’s still under construction after more than 100 years. When completed, the highest tower will be more than half as high again as those that stand today.

Unfinished it may be, but it attracts around 2.8 million visitors a year and is the most visited monument in Spain. The Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church will continue for at least another decade, but it has already become Barcelona's most important landmark.

The architect Francisco de Paula del Villar designed a neo-Gothic church and led the construction started on 1882. One year later, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí took over as lead architect at the age of 31. From that moment on, Gaudí devoted most of his life to the construction of the church. Instead of sticking to the original plans, Gaudí changed the design drastically. The neo-Gothic style made way for Gaudí's trademark modernist style, which was based on forms found in nature.

It’s so sad when he died on a car accident in 1926, with only one facade (the Nativity Facade), one tower, the apse and the crypt were finished. After Gaudí's death in 1926 construction slowed dramatically due to a lack of funds and the outbreak of the Civil War. Construction pace started to pick up again in the mid 1950s and now two facades and eight towers have been completed. The main nave was roofed in 2000. At that time construction was expected to last for another hundred years, but modern technology has enabled architects to speed up construction so that the Sagrada Família is now slated for completion before 2030.

Alrighty! I'm not listening to music hokay! That's Audioguides for all tourist, they have different number station, you will just need to enter the station code number and it will explain and tell you more information!
Languages available: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese. How cool?

I would really really love to visit this when it’s completed, and I look forward to it!
Spent quite some time inside the church. I don’t think all the photos can ever do it’s justice. Definitely a MUST SEE in Barcelona. The intricate details in every part of the building, it’s just amazing!! Do go when there’s bright lights shining through the stained glass! It’s stunning!!

Save some time and buy your tickets online! We queue for more than an hour to get inside even though we arrived before the operating hours. Crazily packed alright? But it’s a total worthy place to go for sure! That's some camwhore time while queuing!

 

We spent almost half a day here! Just can’t bear to leave the place, and we went to every single corner to examine and study the place! It’s lovely indeed!

Finally to shopping time thereafter again! Saw this mosaic carousel along the street when we returning to our place. It’s really beautiful and I want to bring it back so much! This cost me SGD$80! Contemplated for awhile, and decided to just get it since it has been awhile since I bought a carousel for myself! Another carousel added to my mini-collection! *happy like mad

Went to St Josep La Boqueria market which just few blocks away from our apartment, it is a paradise for the senses. Wake up to the smells and colours of the Boqueria.

 

What a mesmerising sight, we found the Chocolate stall and we bought some goodies back from there. It has everything, brilliantly coloured fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meats. Try the freshly made fruit smoothies or ice-cream! *Yummy

The candies paradise, kids would love this for sure!!

Ended our another day early because we need to catch the plane on the next early morning. Skipped a lot of attractions that we planned to go, but each attraction filled of loads of tourist including us. So basically need to spend a couple of hours at one place. Sigh.. if only we have longer time there!

Oh well, up next to Paris!! Be right back.

#EJCtour2013
Check out this hashtag in instagram if you have.!