09 Barcelona Part 2
Another win for the free
The €30 fee to tour La Pedrera cost me most of my appetite for paid-entry activities in Barcelona. As it turns out, there is much in the city to enjoy for free.
On my first night, I meandered out of the apartment, across La Rambla, through the Gothic Quarter, and along the shoreline. This took me past the unremarkable monument to Colombus, and up Paral-lel, a commercial street lined with art:
As I wandered back to my accommodation, I stumbled upon a free open-air concert with a local band. Families, students, and office workers hung around, a few dancing in front of the small stage. Further along, I passed the University of Barcelona, and, a little to the south, I walked through the courtyard of what used to be a medieval hospital. Although it was too late in the evening to enjoy the art exhibition at La Capella, I note that it, too, was for free.
This is not to say that I recommend avoiding all paid-entry tourist activities in Barcelona. I went to La Pedrera, a Gaudi building, because being inside cool-looking buildings really does it for me. It was as surreal and fascinating as I hoped, and there was an exhibit in the attic with further information about how Gaudi developed his designs.
That said, it was extremely crowded even though my visit fell somewhat outside peak tourist season. Trying to capture the famous chimneys on the rooftop, for instance, was mostly an exercise in photographing other tourists. I did my best to avoid the others but it was no use:
After that, I walked uphill for perhaps 20 or 30 minutes, until I reached a concrete staircase. What followed was what may have been a 15-minute stair climb. Finally, I arrived at the entrance gate to Parc Guëll, a large park reportedly featuring more of Gaudi’s design. I say “reportedly” because by the time I made it up there, the Parc had just “sold out” for the day. I thought about buying tickets for the next day, but when I saw the ticket price, I decided to walk back downstairs to La Rambla and make another plan.
I wandered past the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, still in part under construction, and marveled at the detail. It is one of those works of art that seem to expand in detail the longer you look at them.
Further down, I came across El Born, a market building constructed in the 19th century and put to various uses until, in the early 2000s, it was found to be the site of old city ruins. Some shovelfuls later, the site revealed what remained of the La Ribera district after the War of Spanish Succession:
The ruins, overlaid with walkways, were a surprising piece of history on their own. That said, El Born also features a decent-sized museum, which included a free exhibit hall with relics dating from the beginning of the 18th century.
I spent the rest of my day at Citadel Park, a large and beautiful free-entry park featuring several water features, including this:
The next day, I spent a few hours browsing a local bookshop (featuring books in Catalan, Spanish, and even English), and then realized I hadn’t climbed more than a few flights of stairs all morning.
By way of remedy, I skipped the €17 funicular which would have taken me to Montjuic Castle and took public transport to the station near Montjuic Park. At that point, I didn’t actually realize how far away the castle was or what the climb would entail.
But in just one 20-minute jaunt up the stairs, I made it:
At this point, I was damp with sweat, and the last thing I wanted to do was enter a chilly stone building. Instead, I enjoyed the grounds, which overlook the coast:
After a few hours of hiking, it was time to descend upon the town and find some ice cream.
I take pistachio ice cream quite seriously, and part of my discovery method was to hover near Turkish tourists outside well-rated ice cream shops until I heard someone comment on the quality of the pistachio ice cream. I believe this helped me avoid getting ripped off at lower-quality creameries and allowed me to narrow my search to the exquisite Turín gelateria, near Poble Sec station (I paid them for the ice cream which allowed me to say this). The ice cream contained a respectable amount of pistachio, and it blended sweet and salty to achieve a unique richness of flavour.
Enough said.
Terms of Engagement
I had long suspected that, despite all the trappings of the modern world, spookfoolery persists among the upper echelons of our society. Indeed, over half of you identified as regular or irregular spookfools, and one of you wrote in to declare yourself a mega spookfool. MEGA.
Today’s survey returns us to your summer plans. Or indeed, your fall, winter, or spring plans. I obviously have a general budget set out for my leave, which I derived based on what I thought would be prudent (and allow me to take some time to travel as well). I referred it to a financial advisor before finalizing it, and, I assume, became somebody’s wacky client icebreaker story in the process… but enough about that! What is your process for determining your time-away budget?
Sponsor
This post was sponsored by: stairs. No further explanation necessary.