Barcelona, Spain, Part 4: June 29, 2010

So on our third day, it was mostly a day of Gaudi architecture and other cool looking buildings.  We went to two Gaudi buildings: Casa Mila, and Casa Batllo, which was the one we went into.  Along the way, we saw many other beautiful buildings.  We will keep the words to a minimum, as there isn't a lot to say, so just enjoy the fantastic architecture!

Kinda looks like a fantasy movie castle in the middle of the road!

Sometimes between all the really cool, freaky, detailed "traditional" buildings, a really modern one popped up!  This one, which looks like it has silver vertical waves, are actually windows.  If you walked past the building to the other side at the same angle this photo is taken, you'd see the windows peaking out from the flat side of the "wave".  Very simple but cool idea that gives the building a very different look depending on what angle you are looking at it!

Here is Casa Mila, a very famous Gaudi building. When we got there we went to see how much it would cost to go inside the building... and almost shat our pants! It was €11!! What the hell! We were still able to go into the gift shop and from there you could see the inside a little bit...

Here is the view of the inside of Casa Mila from the gift shop window :P The gift shop entrance was off the main street but the shop itself extended all the way into this atrium. 

All around Barcelona there were these amazing tiles on the sidewalks. These were designed by Gaudi (we had seen similar versions at Park Guell). These add so much character to the city!

And here is Casa Battlo, another hugely famous Gaudi building. It's also known as "The House of Bones," since the little balconies look like skulls. Guess how much it was to go inside? €11? Nope. €15?? Nope... it was freakin' €17.80!!! We were determined to go inside a Gaudi building though, so it was between paying almost €18 for Casa Battlo or €11 for Casa Mila. In the end we went with Casa Battlo because this building seemed much freakier and more unique. We figured if we were only going to see one, it may as well have been the cooler one! Although we couldn't afford to eat for the next two days... :P Hahaha

This is the building right next to Casa Battlo. We don't think this was a building of any particular significance but that's what we loved about Barcelona... even an "ordinary" building looked incredible and unique...

Inside Casa Battlo, this is the first thing you see, a spiral staircase made of wood with the side designed to represent a spine. As you can see the wood is all carved and looks very cool and wavy. A lot of this building and aspects of it were inspired by skeletons and marine life.

Mushroom fireplace! Smurfs must have been Catalan. Notice the awesome seats inside the mushroom... wicked shroom for two!

Inside one of the main rooms (with windows out to La Rambla) was this incredible moulded ceiling. Gaudi designed not only every detail of the house itself but also every piece of furnishing. This ceiling light was specifically designed to go with this ceiling, and as you can see the result looks super cool!

Same room (you can see the ceiling and the light). The stained glass circles in the wood carved door frames were each made of different colours and textures. They were also made so that the colours of the glass would look different depending on whether you were looking at them from one side of the door or the other. Gaudi designed this space with a extreme attention to light and how it behaves.

The atrium inside the house. As you can see there were many floors to this house, and at the top is a skylight. The tiles in this section gradually changed from a light blue at the bottom to a deep blue at the top. Gaudi thought that by doing this you would see a more uniform shade of blue since the top areas would receive more light from the skylight. We also found that it gave a very underwater feel to the place.

On one of the floors there is an exit to the back courtyard of the house. Notice how Gaudi chose to place two columns right next to each other, right in front of the doors. He apparently did this on purpose so as to defy the conventions of where columns would normally be placed.

Here's the back courtyard. Oh, and Cliff too :P

A view of the building from the back of the courtyard. The building's more tame here at the back, but it's still very nice... Oh and Stefan's there too :P

At the top floor of the house the colour scheme really changes and everything is very white and sculpted looking. Stefan thinks it all looks like it was made from Mentos or marshmallow... Hahaha. Reminds us of the Greek islands!!

Funny alcove underneath a staircase... It was giving birth to Stefan!

On the roof top. Make sure you click on this picture to enlarge the picture and check out those chimneys!! Each one is decorated with a mosaic.

Another part of the building giving birth to one of us...

This is the top of the building's facade. As you can see on the back side (not facing the street) it is one giant mosaic, and the front side are scales in many shades of purply blue. The ridge on the top looks like a spine, and this whole thing looks like a dragon's back to us... how amazing and cool is this?!

Here you can see more of the scaly roof and a turret (the tower-y thing)... which is also entirely covered in mosaic tiles. We hope the guy who put that together got paid reeeeally well!

A room at the top of the building. On that table is a guestbook you can sign. The arches in this room were used out in the corridors on the top floor as well, and they were a new type of arch designed by Gaudi. This room is supposed to look like a rib cage of a whale... we'd say he succeeded, wouldn't you?? :) We this there is something very "Ivory Tower" (from The Neverending Story) about this room too! Cliff finds it very tranquil but Stefan doesn't necessarily agree... 

Inside another part of the building, where you can get a good look at the tiling. See how there are many pieces that are specially cut for the parts of the wall that curve.

Back out on the streets of Barcelona... here is another random cool building! The photos that follow are all of random buildings that we found very appealing.

Wouldn't it be fantastic to live here and have one of those balconies as one of your own?!

Placa Catalunya in the evening...

La Rambla at night.

And that brings us to the end of another fantastic day in Barcelona.

Barcelona, Spain, Part 3: June 28, 2010

After Park Guell, we just aimlessly walked the city, taking in the sights, and whatever we stumbled upon!  Because Barcelona is so fantastic, you can have an awesome day without having plans to do anything particularly special!

Just a random building that looks really cool!

A more futuristic version of awesome looking buildings in Barcelona!

A residential street where each building is distinctive, and looks like a wonderful place to live.

Another housing street, this time a walking-only one...how awesome would it be to live here!?

We'll take balcony number two, Bob!

One more of Gaudi's awesome creations, Casa Vicens.  This building was hidden on a small street out of the way, among residential streets, and it took us a long, long time to find it.  We asked a lot of locals in the area where it was, some had no idea, some had a vague idea and put us in the right (general) direction. We just had to find it in the maze of few blocks we figured it was in!

A street that runs to one of the harbours through the centre of the city is called La Rambla.  It's one of the main streets in Barcelona and a major tourist attraction. It's a fantastic street, really really wide, and one reason it's so great is that it's about 75% pedestrian and 25% cars.  There is only one lane for cars each way on the outsides of the pedestrian area.  As you can see, there are trees along the street, and it's full of shops, restaurants and lots of buskers!  Another great place in the city to just stroll along aimlessly!

This is the MACBA, the contemporary art gallery of Barcelona.  We had plans to go there someday, but it happened to work out that day.  However, once we got inside, we found out that almost the entire gallery was closed, there was one small room that was open to view, and you still had to pay to see it.  Major renovations were going on, which kept us from seeing any art!

This is the courtyard in front of the gallery, looking the opposite direction of the photo above this one.  What was really cool about this courtyard is that it was an integrated skateboard park.  Those yellow things were moveable things that skaters could do tricks on and around.  It looked like moveable functional art!

This is the entrance to the gallery, inside looking out.  It's like walking through some Space Odyssey 2001!

We found this vegetarian restaurant, one of very few we found on the trip.  It was a all you can eat buffet, and Stefan was very excited!  After being tricked by the paella full of animal parts on the first day, veggie Spanish-ish food was fantastic!  This was a stuffed grilled eggplant (rice and veggies), veggie paella, chickpea salad, grilled mushroom and onions, and one more thing at the end that we can't remember! It was tasty, however, in a few photos you will see how Stefan's happy veggie belly was highly disturbed!

This is the entrance to La Boquiera, a fantastic market just off La Rambla.  It doesn't look like much here, but once you get inside, it opens up to food market heaven!

Great, hanging cured legs of some large animal!

Tons of candied fruits! Fruit and candy all in one!  Healthy and fun!

There were tons of beautiful arrays of fruits and veggies, which on their own looked really yummy, but were always arranged perfectly too!

Oooohhhh, endless chocolates and nuts!!! Also healthy and fun! :P

A great stall of veggies and fruit!

All the dried peppers you could ever want!

There were lots of stalls that made fresh fruit juice mixes, so it took us a bit to decide which one had the flavours we wanted...one of us had coconut blackberry juice, and the other had a kiwi passionfruit...holy shit balls they were good, and only €1 each!

AHHH!!! BARF!!!! Here is where Stefan's veggie meal got upset and almost got puked up!  What can you identify!?  Pig, goat, ????

Another awesome random walk way.  This one was in the centre of La Rambla.

The Barcelona Opera House, still very nice looking, but not as fantastic as many other buildings in the city!

A great shot of La Rambla: this is the end that is closer to the water, it's not as busy on this end 'cause there are less shops and restaurants.

At the end of La Rambla, close to the water, there is a large roundabout with some really great buildings around it.  This is one of them!

This is another one!

...And another one!

Frig, they are everywhere! Another fantastic looking building!

The waterfront at the end of La Rambla.  This section is fairly open, and there are not any boats docked in it.  The wavy wharf is a large walk way that goes out to a mall built on a dock in the middle of the harbour!  It's a great place to walk and sit and chill out! We did that a few times.

This is the other side of the wavy wharf.  This side there is a marina, with lots of sailboats in it.

This buoy, or boy rather, is floating in the harbour...taking a whiz!  Ends up, he's not holding his male parts, but has his hands behind his back! :P (Check out how his knees are bent!)  But what's the star for!?

Sailboats!!!

Cool view from the wavy wharf looking over the waterfront and marina.

A nice shot of the obelisk in the centre of the roundabout at the end of La Rambla.

And so concludes our second full day in Barcelona! So much to see!!! AAAAAH!!!!