Our car was packed with all the luggage for 19 days:
12 days/11 nights on the Noordam and 7 nights in hotels in Barcelona and Rome.
Flying from Brussels Airport has several advantages for us: it is only an hour
drive from our home in The Netherlands. Another advantage: they have a
reservation zone holiday parking just outside the departure hall of the
airport. No bus transfers or taxi’s, just a 2 minute walk.
This is our first time on Brussels Airlines as you could
derive from the disappointment with our carry-on luggage we reported yesterday.
But to be honest: We had a great flight. No inflight movies, no free meal or
drinks, but it is not even a 2 hour flight. In Barcelona we used Click AirportTransfer to get to our hotel. A great taxi driver with some great additional
tips for sightseeing and restaurants.
Our hotel was the Grupotel Gran Via 678, right on the
Gran Via Corts Catalanes and close to Placa de Catalunya. We had made
reservations for a family room (actually two connecting rooms) through Booking.com. Great and luxurious
rooms. The girls had a full bath and we had a rainshower. The rooms are
overlooking the (small) pool. That is the quiet side of the hotel, since the hotel is on a
very busy street. The pool looked very tempting, especially for Kim and Rhodé.
But we decided to explore Barcelona.
First it was time for our basic needs, so we bought bottled
water. Since the flight did not include lunch, we headed to a restaurant. We
picked one with mostly locals on the terrace (a tip Rick Steves often gives on his radio show). After dessert we went to nearby
Placa de Catalunya. That’s the square where the tourist information is, where
we bought travel cards so we had unlimited use of metro, trains and buses
(starting tomorrow).
Travel guides refer to Placa de Catalunya as ‘the heart of
Barcelona’. We liked the fountains, but apart from that it was not as special
as we hoped. So on to Las Ramblas. Seemingly one long street, all the way to
the Mediterranean sea. Actually a couple of successive streets: Rambla de
Canaletes, Rambla dels Estudis, Rambla de Sant Josep, Rambla dels Caputxins and
Rambla de Santa Monica.
Halfway Las Ramblas is the semi-covered market La
Boqueria.
Nice fruit stands and fish stands. You can buy a pigs leg (for
the ham: jamón). Great colors and smells, apart from the fish-smell.
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| La Boqueria |
We continued on Las Ramblas, passing the beautiful Opera Liceu all the way to Port Veil. At the end is a monument for Christopher
Columbus.
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| Monument for Christopher Columbus |
Nice place to get some
pictures of our ladies. Especially the lions at the base of the Colon were
popular for photographers. Nice square, kind of like Nelsons monument a
Trafalgar Square in London.
Time to refill our water bottles and on to Barri Gotic.
That is the old (medieval) part of Barcelona. Mysterious little cobblestoned
streets and beautiful squares. Every window has a small balcony and hatches.
Great part of Barcelona, a must see.
We ended up on Placa Reial with the Fountain of the Three Graces in the middle and lanterns designed by Antoni Gaudi.
.jpg "Fountain of the Three Graces"){kind=spacer} |
| Fountain of the Three Graces |
Gaudi is the
designer of the most beautiful parts of Barcelona. Also in the Barri Gotic we
visited Placa Sant Jaume with the cute Placa de Ramon Berenguer.
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| Placa de Ramon Berenguer |
Further on to a not to miss sight: La Seu, the
cathedral of Barcelona.
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| Cathedral of Barcelona: La Seu |
Close to La Seu is the interesting Placa Sant Felip
Neri. You can still see the bulletholes of the executings during the Spanish
civil war.
Enough for one day, so we walked back to our hotel. After a long day flying and sightseeing: just the right moment to really enjoy the rainshower.
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