Barcelona Part four

 The quietest and most peaceful place in Barcelona is Saint Pau del Camp, a wonderful church that deserves far more visitors than it gets. Its a wonderful 11th century monastery, with some beautiful architectural features. It's a Romanesque building, with some Moorish and Visigothic elements and styles throughout. It's only 6 euros to visit, an if you plan ahead, there are guided tours (10 euros) on Sunday's between services.


From the quietest, to now the busiest. Park Guell is one of those places that you have to visit, even though you know its going to be busy, confusing and you don't get to properly enjoy it. Its a large park, full of both brightly coloured pieces of art, and some downright almost creepy ones. Designed by the world famous designer Antoni Gaudi, the park encompasses a lifetime of design. I suppose the term 'thats very gaudy looking' came from him perhaps? Tickets are 10 euros, but you need to pre book them, don't expect to be able to just rock up and get in, even those with tickets end up in huge queues to get in. With his work, I think you either love it or don't get it, and unfortunately I'm in the don't get it bracket. Yes, some of it is very beautiful, but I don't get the themes, or understand some of it. In particular the creepy balcony with the pillars that look like tree roots. No thanks! But some of the smaller singular pieces are amazing, the lizard being the highlight for me.


Top pillars are creepy, bottom ones are beautiful! Why cant all columns be like that?

And finally, no visit to anywhere in Spain is complete without visiting the market. Barcelona's biggest and most well known is La Bouqueria. It's great for a mooch around, there's super fresh produce there, as well as places to eat, drink and socialise. If you're in self catering accommodation, make sure you drop by there, it has literally everything you could ever want under one roof.

And that completes my time in Barcelona! It went so fast! There's so much to do there, and lots more still to do there which I would like to do. But if you're heading north down the Spanish coast like I did, then relax, no where is nearly as busy, bustling and manic as Barcelona!









mercade de la bouqueria (market)

park Guell


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