The end

Oh and then there was London.
It was good.
The end!

Hola Barcelona

So I arrived in Barcelona after some fun plane times. Getting so over flying. Too bad that I still have one massive flight left. Fun times ahead indeed. I had the afternoon free after I arrived so spent it wandering down Las Ramblas. It’s like the Queen St Mall on steroids. And lots of little baby malls coming of it. It’s a shopping paradise. Ok so maybe a third of the shops are all souvenir shops but who am I to complain. That was pretty fun actually exploring little side streets and little tapas bars. I hit the Mediterranean Sea at the end of Las Ramblas so I decided to stop and explore the shore front. Got a great open space and leisure centre (more shops) there too.

Lastly went on a speed boat tour of the shoreline of Barcelona. Generally very good except for the loud child next to me who kept asking questions. At first it was cute, cause you realized he was trying to cover being scared. But geez after 20mins of non stop questions….well we almost lost a passenger, a toss up it being me or him. Anyway he eventually calmed down some and could enjoy the coastline. Oh and saw this thing called water flying. Looked pretty fun.

Of course Barcelona, I had tapas, tapas and more tapas. And a crazy waiter, who just would not stop. Mmmm. Anyways, fairly good first impression.

Woke up next morning fairly bright and early (cause I am getting tired) and headed to La Sagrada Familia. Bought tickets to it that morning online, which turned out to be a good idea with the queues, cause you know how I love queues. Well this church was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It blew my mind, I was probably standing there gaping like a fish. Its by Gaudi (really cool architect who is everywhere in Barcelona). The entire church is funded by the people not gov or anything, so is still in progress. Who knows when they will actually finish it. But has been ordained/consecrated/something by the pope so that’s a pretty excellent start to a church.

So next stop was Parc Guell, a park with design by Gaudi (it’s going to be a very Gaudi-ish day). After you finally arrive at the park after climbing a couple of mountains, you are greeted with this awesome staircase. Apart from the cruel torture of stairs after the mountain climb, they looked pretty fantastic. And his famous lizard is there too. One of my favourite spaces was the underside of the viewing platform, beautiful concave ceilings with fantastic column space. But it’s just hilarious watching all the guys and girls hawking their crap down there, absolutely packed. Then the cops walk past and its suddenly like a tomb, they have all wrapped up their stuff and gone. You catch them following the cops and setting up shop again directly behind them almost. Very cheeky buggers. I mean, it has been like that everywhere, but here it was so distinct.

But to continue with the theme of the day, I headed to Casa Batlo, designed by….Gaudi! But first stopped to have a quick look at La Pedera, also by Gaudi.

It kinda got blown away when I arrived at Casa Batlo tho. This house was crazy, but in a good way. Really loved it. It’s a 4 level ‘townhouse’. Right. So got to explore the house which was amazing. This house definitely has a fluid/water feel. Even all the joinery is distinctly shaped. I even got a photo from the top peeking out of the crows nest window.

That’s the end for the Gaudi portion of this trip, but the day wasn’t over.  I also saw the Olympic Stadium (blah), couple of pretty galleries (from the outside only) , Calatrava’s Needle, and the Spanish Village. That was interesting actually. It was a world expo thing, where they have samples of buildings from all different Spanish regions. It’s got workshops and shops in them to make it really cute.

And then, to end my day (finally), I headed for the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. Basically fountains along this fantastic boulevard with this massive one in the middle that is performing to music and a light show. Stunning. Was watching with a Russian girl who spoke limited English, I spoke even less Russian, and no ones Spanish was that good. But we could both sing along to the songs fine (even when in English). Was really great end to my stay here. Brilliant night.

l’addition s’il vous plaît

OK so this is my last full day in Paris, I fly out tomorrow. So quickly, cause I am so behind with this, lets me bore you with the details. Saw the Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart), checked out the Moulin Rouge, wandered through the Musee d’Orsay, found a million guys with Eiffel Towers to sell, trundled down to La Defense and the Grande Arche, then said a final hello to some favourites. Ok, next!

Well for those of you who are getting a little…ok already, that can be enough. But then again, I’m not forcing you to read, so here’s a little more anyway.

Sacre Coeur was probably one of my favourite churches, maybe because it was a little simpler than some of others I’ve seen. Not that it was boring, but just a nice difference between the complicated, ornate and the simplicity of the blockwork. You get a pretty nice view over Paris actually, just from the hill it’s on. Oh, and somebody got the church confused with Disneyland. I like!

Moulin Rouge, well I saw it during the day, so it just looked a little seedy. During the night I can imagine the area would be …well seedier with music. Especially with all the strip bars and sex shops all lit up. How many can they really justify on one street. Isn’t that sort of glutting the market a little. Anyway, not my concern I guess.

Loved the Musee d’Orsay. Not just cause its a very cool retrofit of a train station into a museum. Had some wonderful art there too. Lots of artist works like Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, even sculpture from those such of Rodin. Very cool. Loved Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

I took a longer train ride outside my free zones in Paris to go see La Defense. Basically it’s a major business district of Paris, with lots of great buildings. The one I was most keen to see was the Grande Arche. It’s pretty great how this all lines up with the Arc de Triumphe, the Champs-Elysées, and to Place de la Concorde. Nice master planning Haussmann!

So after that, really just cruised around the city looking for final memories to take away. I loved Paris a lot, had none of the difficulties people talk of with the language barrier, rudeness or whatever. Everything was fantastic. Definitely returning…..one day.