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第一次在风坛发帖，如有笔误见谅！
Barcelona Trip Feb. 24th-March 1st
Transportation: Easy Jet, taxi, subway, bus, (taxi transportation between airport and hotel)
Hotel: Alexandra Barcelona by Doubletree
Hilton @ Carrer de Mallorca, 251, 08008 Barcelona, The hotel is in Eixample
district which is utmost central and chic, we stayed for 5 nights, ask for a
room away from construction site and facing the courtyard inside
Hilton @ Carrer de Mallorca, 251, 08008 Barcelona, The hotel is in Eixample
district which is utmost central and chic, we stayed for 5 nights, ask for a
room away from construction site and facing the courtyard inside
Restaurants: Cervecería Catalana @ Carrer de Mallorca, 236, 08008
Casa Calvet @ Carrer de Casp, 48, 08008
La Fonda @ Carrer dels Escudellers, 10
L'Olla de Si Chuan（四川火锅）@ Plaça del Dr. Letamendi, 11, 08011
Cafe Foyer @ Palau de la Musica Catalana
Yubari @ Avenida Diagonal 339 Bis, 8037
Tips : book visits online to Casa Batllo, Casa Milla, Sagrada Familia to avoid waiting in lanes
We always go around without any purse or handbags, just carry some cash and credit cards inside
my jacket pocket, and hold any printed tickets/maps in hand. Buy 10-trip cards for subway and bus
my jacket pocket, and hold any printed tickets/maps in hand. Buy 10-trip cards for subway and bus
2/24/2015 arrival, Catalana, La Pedrera (Casa Mila), Casa Calvet
We arrived Barcelona by flight ~10 am, took taxi to hotel, checked in and left luggage with the hotel and then heading out for some tapas @ Catalana which is 1 min walk from hotel.
The tapa place had quite some local people enjoying espresso there even on a Tuesday morning. After a few yummy tapas we made our way towards Passeig de Gracia which is just around the corner from the hotel, and planned to just do some window shopping and taking in the warm Barcelona atmosphere. The street bench grabbed our interest with its elaborate ironwork
and mosaic design, so we decided to take picture of the bench, only to find there was a residential building one block down across the street with this extra-terrestrial looking rooftop! That was when we realized the famous Casa Mila (La Pedrera) by Gaudi is so close to our hotel!
and mosaic design, so we decided to take picture of the bench, only to find there was a residential building one block down across the street with this extra-terrestrial looking rooftop! That was when we realized the famous Casa Mila (La Pedrera) by Gaudi is so close to our hotel!
It was around 1 pm and to our delight, there was no line for the admission tickets which is at the right side of the building. We followed the audio to tour the building for about 3 hours, were really awed by Gaudi’s extraordinary originality and creativity. Gaudi once said that every building needs its own umbrella and hat, the rooftop with those ET-looking chimneys is the umbrella of
La Pedrera and the attic which was built together with 273 Catenary arches is its hat.
La Pedrera and the attic which was built together with 273 Catenary arches is its hat.
After touring La Pedrera, we walked back to the hotel (3 min) which by now had our room ready and took a leisure Spanish siesta, just woke up by 8 pm to get ready for dinner @ Casa Calvet, which is a Gaudi building. It was about 15 min walk from our hotel to Casa Calvet, we didn’t make reservation but got a table by luck probably the timing of Tuesday evening helped too. I strongly recommend to make a reservation ahead of time since this restaurant has only about 12 tables that can host at most 50-60 people per evening. The service and food/dessert were impeccable, the experience of dinning in a Gaudi building was unique and
wonderful . We don’t drink wine so no opinion there. On the way back to hotel, we passed by Casa Batllo on Passeig de Gracia which is two blocks from our hotel, it was illuminated so well that the dragon on its roof terrace looked as if came to life, even with the lance of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudí's home) plunged into its back.
wonderful . We don’t drink wine so no opinion there. On the way back to hotel, we passed by Casa Batllo on Passeig de Gracia which is two blocks from our hotel, it was illuminated so well that the dragon on its roof terrace looked as if came to life, even with the lance of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudí's home) plunged into its back.
2/25/2015 Casa Batllo, La Rumbla, La Fonda
We booked Casa Batllo (another Gaudi building) visit with the video option online for 11 am tour. Salvador Dali, also from Barcelona, once described the roof of the building as appearing like “the reflections of twilight clouds on the waters of a lake”. It was also called “house of bones, house of yawn”, due to its façade and balcony, which also resembles the water lily from Monet. This is a lovely building that makes you even feel its breathing. Funny thing is kids felt this building give a sand dune feel due to its sand toned color in most of its rooms.
For lunch we took subway ride to La Fonda, a nice restaurant in a narrow meandering alleyway, had sangria, seafood paella, risotto with baby squid and squid Ink, crème Catalan. Nice restaurant, liked the risotto and dessert a lot, seafood paella is alright but not outstanding. I would give a 5 on a scale of 10 for this restaurant.
After lunch, we walked around to the beach area, then back to La Rambla, eventually walk all the way back to our hotel. If Passeig de Gracia is like the 5th Avenue in Manhattan, then La Rambla is the Broadway! It is lively, with many shops and street artists, the famed La Boqueria market is here too, with its amazingly colorful display of fruits, spices, seafood, and of course Spanish Hams, we even saw Sichuan pepper
For dinner we had Catalana again, had some new great seafood tapa, the sangria at Catalana is a bit too strong for us, couldn’t
even finish the half liter. The tapas were wonderful. I would give an 8 on a scale of 10.
even finish the half liter. The tapas were wonderful. I would give an 8 on a scale of 10.
2/26 Sagrada Familia, Plaça de Catalunya, Passeig de Gracia,
Today is the big day for Sagrada Familia! And this was the only day we got up early ince we booked a 9:15 am visit. From our hotel we just walked about 15-20 min along Carrer de Mallorca, then there was the amazing basilica of the century! Gaudi devoted the last 43 years of his life to this basilica which is still under construction. There is no word that could truly describe the glory façade and interior. We also took the elevator flight up the Nativity façade, amazing experience, highly recommended. Kids felt this is the most impressive experience, feeling like we all tiny people wondering at the bottom of a flowering meadow, looking up to admire the flowers in sky. Don't forget to visit the museum and the one-room school on site.
The walk around Plaça de Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia was quite pleasant. We did some apparel shopping, even got some Jamón ibérico from El Corte Inglés de Centro Comercial Plaça de Catalunya!
2/27 Passeig de Gracia, Hot pot, Bizet's Carmen at Palau de la Musica Catalana
3 days into Barcelona and Spanish cuisine, we were craving for Chinese food. To our delight we found Sichuan Hotpot just 10 min walk from our hotel, so satisfied that we would want to go back for more if we had the stomach! I would give a 9! Afterwards we just wondered along Passeig de Gracia window shopping and then took a siesta to get ready for our evening opera.
The highlight for today is Bizet's Carmen at Palau de la Musica Catalana. We booked the opera a week ago at the musical theater’s website. I picked up the tickets at the window in morning and arrived for the evening performance 1 hour earlier for some light pre-opera snacks at the café there. This is a concert hall designed in the Catalan modernista style by Montaner, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site just like Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila (La Pedrera, Casa Batllo). The design of the Palau is typical of Catalan modernism with its sumptuous sculptural decor, predominate curvy and dynamic shapes, rich flora decoration, and extensive organic motifs style, and eminently rational. The concert hall of the Palau, which seats about 2,200 people, is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light.
We booked the center seats on 2nd floor which offers fantastic full central view of the concert hall . The soprano Carman’s performer Marta Velano was amazing and totally dominated the stage, her Carman is fiery, seductive, irresistible! Surprisingly the tenor Don José's performer Sergi Giménez Carreras is the nephew of the famed José Carreras, guess the tenor genes runs in the family. But the toreador / bullfighter Escamillo is the charmer. The Flamenco performance on the catalan stage was impressive.
2/28 Park Guell, Plaza de España, Yubari @ Avenida Diagonal 339 Bis, 8037 Barcelona
We took bus to another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Park Guell is really fun! We especially liked the colonnaded pathway where the road projects out from the hillside, with the vaulting forming a retaining wall which curves over to support the road, and transmits the load onto sloping columns. The unique serpentine shaped bench with Gaudí's colorful tiled mosaics on the park terrace is a nice place to rest and overlook Barcelona.
We also visited Plaza de España, very impressive square with strong monumental feel.
We had Japanese for dinner this evening @ Yubari. The ambience of this restaurant is posh and chic. You definitely need to make
reservation. Very impressive presentation and nice food quality.
3/1 early flight homereservation. Very impressive presentation and nice food quality.
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