Thursday, October 22, 2009

Sightseeing Barcelona – Oct 4, 2009

We walked so much the previous day before, we did not set our alarms and thought the rising sun will wake us up from our sleep. WRONG!! SO WRONG!! Hubby and I woke up to a dark room to realize that it was not 7am, it was like 10 am plus! We quickly woke up the rest and got ready and started our day……..late! I forgot if we even had breakfast! From that morning onwards, we always set our alarm clocks the night before! =)

 IMG_0618 (Large) IMG_0651 (Large)

Since the husbands were nice to let the wives planned out the whole trip, we thought it would be nice for them to visit Camp Nou/Barcelona Football (Soccer) Club. The huge stadium is a little out of the way away from where most attractions are, but is reachable by Metra (Still in Zone 1) and a bit of walking. And since we started the day late, the guys were anxious that the place will close by the time we got there. The stadium closes early on Sundays.

Camp Nou (Top) is where football (soccer) matches are played and is home to the Barcelona team. Entrance fee to visit the stadium and museum is a hefty Euro 17 per person. Personally, if you’re not a huge football/soccer fan…… it’s not worth paying that much to see a soccer field. If you’re a fan of the sport like the husbands, that you’ll get giddy and excited! =) Camp Nou according to Wikiepedia is the largest stadium in Europe and the 11th largest in the world with a capacity of 98, 787.

IMG_0671 (Large)

The Champions League Trophy..I think (Top) was also on display. Hubby (and many other guys) got all excited….. I had no clue what the deal/excitement was. =P

IMG_0702 (Large)IMG_0712 (Large)

We then took the Metra to Montjuic Mountain area in hopes that we’ll still be able to get into the Barcelona National Museum. We arrived in the Montjuic area to be greeted by two large pillars (Top Left) and many exhibit/convention halls. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Palau Nacional (Barcelona National Musuem) (Top Right) was so grand, so breathtaking, so unexpected. I did not expect the building to be that huge and that palace like! Entrance to the Museums are free on the first Sundays of each month (that’s why we chose to go there then) but it also closes early on Sundays! We missed that by a couple minutes! Boo!

IMG_0727 (Large)IMG_0730 (Large)  

Since the Barcelona National Museum is located on Monjuic Mountain, you therefore get a nice view of Barcelona (Top Left) from the entrance of the museum. We walked around the museum to appreciate its architecture (Top Right) and headed to the Olympic Village where the 1992 Olympic was held in Barcelona. No pictures of it as we got tired of walking towards the Olympic Village and decided to walk towards the Spanish Village which was on the other direction instead.

IMG_0744 (Large)IMG_0803 (Large)IMG_0769 (Large)IMG_0782 (Large)IMG_0774 (Large)IMG_0758 (Large)

Poble Espanyol (Spanish Village) built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition in order to provide an insight into the wealth and diversity of Spanish cultures. This is an open-air museum of architecture, featuring replicas of 117 buildings, streets and squares from the Spanish territory. This village was supposed to be torn down, but due to the overwhelming response they got from tourist, they decided to keep it and it remained open till today.

Entrance fee is Euro 8.50 per person. And this was worth every penny. I have to admit I was at first skeptical of the place will offer after reading about it from Seyda’s notes. I was glad we decided to go in to the Village which was built to represent the different areas in Spain. There are restaurants, craft shops with life demos and museums in the village. You can see at first hand a variety of crafts workshops such as ceramics, sculpture, textiles, jewelry, painting, glassblowing, and performing arts workshops.

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails