We were up early again and at Casa Batllo for our 8:30am entrance. Casa Batllo was originally built in 1877 and was purchased by Mr Josep Batlló in 1903. He gave total freedom to Anthony Gaudi to redesign the house which was initially going to be demolished. Gaudi, however, ruled this out and completely changed the facade, redistributing the internal partitioning, expanding the lightwell and converting the inside into a true work of art.
We had an audio guide to guide us through the house which also showed us what the house would have looked like back at the time it was built. It is an impressive building to view and you can imagine just how impressive it must have been back in the early 1900’s.
When we were finished we went for brunch at a place called “Hardware Societe”. They also have cafes in Melbourne and Paris. The food was very good, although the coffee was still too weak even though Mark ordered a triple shot.
We went home via Placa de la Universitat where there was a market and a jigsaw puzzle competition being held (no, we didn’t partake but it looked quite serious!). We dropped a few things off and then took the Metro to Park Guell.
The walk from the Metro to the park is very steep with a lot of steps (I think the kids feel like they’ve seen enough steps to last them a lifetime ?).
Park Güell is a public park originally owned by businessman Eusebi Güell and designed by Gaudi. It was originally intended as a residential park for 60 wealthy families. They started construction in 1900 but it was abandoned in 1914 as they failed to sell the plots of land. It was turned into city property after Eusebi’s death when his heir’s sold it to the city council. It was never finished and the Monumental Park part of Park Guell only takes up a very small proportion of the entire park. They have limited visitor numbers since 2013 and have a timed entry and payment system to enter this part of the park.
It was another hot day and so we only really visited the Gaudi works in Monumental Park. We started in La Plaça (The Square), which is circled by a colorful, undulating bench, from which you get fantastic city views. The story goes that Gaudi had a workman drop his pants and sit in soft plaster to record the correct anatomical curve.
Under the Square are 86 columns holding it up. We continued down to the Park’s most famous landmark, the 2.4m mosaic dragon and then at the bottom are two modernist buildings, Casa del Guarda, where the doormen used to sleep, which is now a museum, and Pabelló de l’Aministració, which houses a souvenir shop. Both buildings demonstrate the purest Gaudí style.
By this time everyone was hot and bothered so we headed back to the apartment for a rest. At the Metro stop I saw a Barebells protein bar in a vending machine (I had discovered these in the US at Christmas) so I decided to get one. I selected the bar and put my money in only for it to get stuck ?. No amount of bashing and hitting the machine would release it so we put more money in and it came out – it was an expensive protein bar but at least I got it.
Once back, I went out to pick up some snacks for everyone and had a sneaky look in a shop or two along the way.
Michelle, a great friend of mine from school/university days, lives in Edinburgh and came to visit us for the evening. When she arrived, we initially went out for a drink at a wine bar, Amovino and left the kids at the apartment.
We went back to get the kids before going to dinner at Restaurante Abrassame which is a Mediterranean style restaurant on the top floor of the old bullring. The restaurant itself was nice enough (we had read that the service from Junior, one of the waiters was always exceptional – clearly those people had a different idea of exceptional service than we did!). They seemed to have a different menu for everything. We eventually got our drinks and the food was good (Greer was very happy with her paella) and the company, fabulous! Poor Greer then got stuck in the toilet. Luckily she had her phone with her and messaged me for help. The lock wouldn’t move no matter which way she turned it so I found a knife on one of the tables and managed to get her out. I mentioned it to Junior so they could fix it but he didn’t seem at all bothered about it.
After dinner we were told it was time to leave (the kids were quite happy about this) and went back to the apartment and then Michelle & I went out for a drink. Surprisingly a lot of places had already shut (it was already probably midnight but I have always thought of Barcelona as a late night city). We found a little Hawaiian inspired cocktail bar, Kahiki. They made us wait for about 5 minutes before taking us into two seats at the bar which had been free the entire time (and no one had left). The menu was completely Spanish so we took a stab in the dark and ordered two cocktails. We sat and chatted and enjoyed our drinks before realising it was 2am and time to head home as Michelle had to be back on a flight in a few hours – she is a popular lady, having more NZ friends in this part of the world to meet up with.
