On the next day it's time to visit the main attraction of Barcelona: The Sagrada Familia. It's a masterpiece by Antoni Gaudi. We already bought our tickets online, from it's official website. From there you can choose one of the discounted price, obviously choose the cheapest price lah. We bought the ticket to visit the cathedral and the tower. But… on that day it was raining, so the tower visit is cancelled due to safety reason. They will refund the money to my credit card. After deducted by the refund, at the end we only paid around S$6/person. Super cheap. I suggest you buy your ticket online, if not you'll have to queue for quite a long time and pay higher price. You should go there early in the morning too. The queue become terribly long in the afternoon.
On our way to the cathedral I already felt so excited. People say that this building really can put you in an awe from the moment you stepped out from metro station. When that moment come, I turned my head to the cathedral, and it really put me in an awe for few seconds. It was so majestic, so huge and so high. I had such a magical feeling like the first time you watch Songs of the Sea. Lame comparison, I know. Please forgive.
This cathedral even haven't finished yet. It's always been under construction for 100 years already. When it will be finished in around 2026-2028 it will become the highest church in the world. You can google it yourself for complete details and history.
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| there was a marathon on that day, how come they run with minimal outfit while i'm still freezing with my 3 layers outfits |
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| magnificent |
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| detailed interior |
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| super detailed, how did they do that... |
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| bought hot chocolate to make me feel 'warmer' |
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| look mommy, i'm finally here! it's not photoshopped leh! |
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| inside the museum |
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| one of the facade |
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| still under construction |
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| at a park nearby |
It's about lunch time already when we finished visiting Sagrada Familia. We cannot decide where to eat. It was on Sunday, as I remembered most of the shops all closed (Europe country is so religious, they closed on Sunday). We decided to follow suggestion that I read from shootfirsteatlater.com to eat The Best Paella in town. She said it is located just in front of Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral. Near Picasso Museum too. As suggested we ordered their Black Rice Paella and Chorizo Pizza (really love chorizo, never get enough). The paella is really delicious! I can't really tell if it's really the best paella in town since we only eat paella once, here. But compared to other paella that I've eat at Singapore, this one is really nice!! I can't remember the price. Sorry. But every meal is around 8-15 euros per dish.
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| stone road |
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| santa maria del mar cathedral |
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| black rice paella, yummy!! |
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| chorizo pizza |
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| somekind of rickshaw |
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| another side of the cathedral |
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| unique gelato store, from what i've read on other blog, that machine can spin then stop at your desired flavour |
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| decided to get a dessert |
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| that's the store name, in case you're curious |
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| too cold to eat gelato, got myself a chocolate crepe instead |
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| never say no to dessert |
We can't decide where else to go, so we just walk and enjoy the surroundings. And accidentally passed by Barcelona Cathedral. What I love about Europe is you can really just walk and enjoy the environment without breaking a sweat (of course depends on the season) and not afraid of getting robbed (like in Indonesia).
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| this is a display window of a cake shop, they just put everything there |
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| must be some landmark, don't know what's the name, just pose |
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| barcelona cathedral |
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| barri gotic area |
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| bike for rent |
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| drinking fountain |
Bored of walking and have no destination, We decided to go to The Poble Espanyol. It is an open-air architectural museum, located on the mountain of Montjuïc. Literally it's like mini Spanish Village. Inside got some stores selling arts, souvenirs and some eateries. I felt like I'm inside RPG game. Like Prontera in Ragnarok. Not much to do here. Just explore and took photos. Only visit if you have spare time.
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| it was raining everyday during our entire stay :( |
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| run out of poses |
The day is still not end yet. And we decided to be super efficient to finish all the tourist attractions by today, so tomorrow can spend the whole day to shop. We went to see Gaudi's other masterpieces along Passeig de Gracia: Casa Batllo and Casa Milla. We wanted to go in, but the queue is damn long. So we just took photo from outside.
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| see the crowd over there |
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| casa batllo, it was a residential house. |
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| casa milla |
Sagrada Familia
Carrer de Mallorca, 401, 08013 Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Sagrada Familia
Santa Maria del Mar Restaurant
Plaza Santa Maria, 4, Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Jaume
Poble Espanyol
Avinguda Francesc Ferrer i Guardia, 13, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Espanya
From the metro station you can take bus #13 or #23 alight 2 stops later.
Casa Batllo
Passeig de Gràcia, 43, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Passeig de Gracia
Casa Milla
Provença, 261 - 265. 08008, Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Diagonal
From Casa Batllo you can just walk to Casa Milla, it's so near. Unless you go to the opposite direction like we did :(
Tapa Tapa
Passeig de Gràcia, 44, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Nearest Metro: Passeig de Gracia
