more from the tour... Barcelona

Another piece of the tour... the circular windows were gorgeous on the churches throughout the city.

And across the way...

(Barcelona's flag was prevalent throughout the city.)

Barcelona Cathedral

Carrie and I walked by the Barcelona Cathedral our first evening in the city. It was gorgeous at night... but even better during the daytime. The gothic cathedral is beautiful and was built between the 13th and 15th centuries.

Columbus' steps

The Sandeman's Free Tour in Barcelona was wonderful. The guide gave a lot of information... in an interesting way... and it was fairly simple to understand and follow along.

The problem for me... is that he gave a LOT of information... I did not take any notes, other than photos... soooooo I don't remember a lot of specifics.

But I DO remember that Christopher Columbus climbed THESE steps [see photo below] when he returned to Spain and brought potatoes to the Queen (...or at least that's the our guide said...)

The square had a lot of other important things going on... one of which I remember is that hangings took place here... 

Oh, and the corners of this building were built like shown below... so that the water collected and then went along the sides and out of the gargoyles mouths (you can see two of the gargoyles in the photo below as well)...

Sandeman's Free Tour - Barcelona

Carrie has gone on other cities' Sandeman tours... so we went on the one offered in Barcelona. The Sandeman's Free Tour is a 3-hour long walking tour through the city with a guide. At the end of the tour, you tip as much as you think the tour was worth. The guide receives a portion of the tips and part also goes to the organizer.

I will definitely go on other tours run by Sandeman. This one was great. I learned a lot about the history of Barcelona (and there's SO much!)... as well as just enjoying walking through the various areas and being able to take photos... but being led by someone else instead of attempting figuring it out on my own.

We met in a square...

And a few more photos of the view from the area where we began the tour:

Torre Agbar - Barcelona

From the airport in Barcelona, Carrie and I took a bus into the city... then the metro a couple stops... and came up to ground level to then walk to our hotel... and this is the view we had:

Come to find out, this is the Torre Agbar building... it opened in 2005 and is the entrance to the technological area of the city. The outside of the building is amazing, in that it looks different throughout the day with the sunlight on it... and then is all lit up at night.

walking around, Night 1 - Barcelona

Our hotel in Barcelona was a couple metro stops from the central part of the city. It was a nice location and the city is very walk-able. We went into the city the first evening there and walked around, seeing various areas and taking photos:

This photo below is one of my favorites of the evening! ...The next day on our walking tour... we learned that this is a Picasso mural!!! Love love love.

first night in Barcelona, Spain

My first trip traveling in Europe was a success! Barcelona is a beautiful city with so much to do.

I've been playing catch-up at work since arriving back in Milan a week ago... but am not getting around to my photos from the trip and posting about them here.

Carrie (the technology integrationist in the elementary school) and I arrived in Barcelona late afternoon. The flight was under an hour and a half... and beautiful... flying along the Alps!

After checking into the hotel we went for an early, small meal of tapas... sharing guacamole (SO fresh and delicious!) and empanadas... Yes, please!

The guacamole was super simple... and super lime-y. Mmmhmmm.

From there, we went into the central part of the city and walked around for a bit. ...THEN we went for a late, small meal of tapas... perrrrrfect.

I don't remember what this dish above was... other than delicious! 

...We also had a spicy, cheesy hummus, which was amazing as well.

This place was nice AND we ran into Angela, another teacher from school! Angela moved to Milan from Barcelona, where she lived and taught for 3 years. She was back for the weekend.

...The long weekend was off to a great start.   : )