Central pedestrian walk along the waterfront marina

There is another view of the beautiful French styled building under renovations

One of the offered means of transportation

As seen on a building in the Palau del Mar area

Barceloneta Park tower

Olympic Park… metal sculptures indicate the beaches of that area.

Besos Water tower that took 3 years to restore

Hop on Bus ..10/30 & 31/19



Some of these notes cover the second day of the hop-on bus and so you’ll not see the corresponding picture.

Wall on Paral-lel (street) is boundary of city built in 13th century

There are 7 beaches 5or 9kms long (depending on which line you’re on)… all area cleaned up in Poblenou area. Some are for wheel chair users

Besos water tower .. red brick tower took 3 yrs to restore.

Bullet-shaped building is Agbar tower

11,000 people live in housing of Olympic village built in 1992, was the start of change in the prosperity and urbanization infrastructure.

Barca stadium capacity is 100,000…. largest in Europe.

Summit ahead as we boarded the red line again,houses a cathedral … is 500.+ meters high.

Casa Batllo house by Gaudi next stop is one with blue porcelain tiles

Casa on right La Pedrera…also translate to pile of stones.

Pedestrian walkways in the middle of street also have trains underneath.

Former bull ring now a shopping centre.

Greater Barcelona has over 3 million inhabitants. The Palace Nationale was built in 1929. Mountjuic named because in time past, was home to Jewish cemetery and so named “Mount of Jews” …. has the largest cemetery of the area.

Maritime museum originally was the shipyards

Giant lobster in walkway.

Palau del Mar is old port warehouse ….now outside cafes specializing in 🦞 and other seafood.

1929 tradefair columns built … at entrance to Montjuic Park.

Telecommunications tower on side of Montjuic near Olympic stadium is the white modernist sculpture built for the 1992 Olympics.

We’ve had a couple of 16,000 plus step days…. oh my God!!! Even the other days have been right up there. We are certainly getting our excercise.

Was started in 1882 … in the geographical centre of Barcelona. In 1926 gaudi died in an accident. He was 74 yrs old.

This structure is still under construction …finish date hopefully….2026.

Main facet on the south side called Assention .. yet to be built with 4 more towers bigger than in east where we entered.

Front is the birth and is in east.

Sculptures were destroyed during civil war and so replaced after… different colour a whiter colour.

Oxidation colour of different bronze on entrance gate is green and red and yellow.

Turtle on left is sea turtle, on right is land turtle 🐢

172 metres high will be the completed height.

100% of weight is supported by interior pillars not exterior walls. Also under stone is reinforced concrete

St George is the patron saint of Catalonia ….a black sculpture of what what looks like Batman or Darth Vader. Same sculptor on west side, the exit which was called the “passion” was by Josep Maria Subirachs. It’s modern, impressionist style… block with straight lines… wow!

Gaudi made models with strings and weights to come to perfect support.

Completed, the Sagrada will have 12 bell towers…..84 bells …4 meters high.

Exterior column

The grey on the model is what has been completed and the yellow is what is scheduled… hopefully by 2026

Coming out onto the street from the subway, this is what we were greeted with….wow!!!

The following are from the east side are of the birth and the attendants

the three wisemen at the birth of Christ

The birth of the Christ child

More picture to come….

Sculpture at the round-about and ferry port.

Pier to a big shopping centre

Renovating this beautiful “Port of Barcelona” building that looks to me to be built in the French style

Gorgeous sailing vessel

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Checking out our BA 747 as it came in

So nice to be able to chat with friend Ron almost face to face

My space….wow!

Pictures taken on way to the port…October 27/19

Me on way to the port

Steel blades of a windmill outside a restaurant

Note the place to kick the door if your hands are full

Catalanyes protesters on their way to meet-up

The flowers of some trees in park. I don’t know what they are. Below is the bark ….extreme spikes of same trees. The bottom picture is the fruit. Does anyone know what they are. The trunks are also bulbous near the ground.

Before even getting off the ground, I had an unbelievable number of notifications regarding a delay of departure times…..mostly for the British Airways flight from Vancouver to London….in total about 15. (I did get about 3 regarding the changes on the Air Canada to YVR). We, my travel companion Ron and I did finally leave the ground in Vancouver, close to 2 hours late. That delay was caused because the previously planned aircraft, had to be replaced with another. Because of that delay, our connecting flight to Barcelona was changed to another leaving an hour later. When we did finally make it into BCN, the temperature was over 21……….so much different than pouring rain and wind in London and the winds that stopped the ferries in Vancouver.

Let me tell you about the wonderful experience of BA both on the ground in the airport in Vancouver and on the 747 to London. As business class passengers we were invited to use the BA lounge …..a first for me. There were comfortable seats to sit on, soups and sandwiches, fruits and alcoholic drinks as well as non alcoholic drinks and several ladies running to pick up after you or get you anything you’d like whether it was a pillow or a blanket or whatever……..so civilized. As Ron and I discussed….we could get used to this real easy! Then on to this plane…..seated in the upper deck, in again comfortable seats with leg room….stretch out, slide down so your reclining or if further…..flatten out, the foot rest comes down and can be met with the seat, making it a bed….wow! Lots of storage besides the overhead, tv screen, etc and all the while you are almost facing your partner face to face….not side by each so you can carry on a conversation. So nice! Only thing, if you are seated at the window, getting out when other passengers are sleeping, is just a little difficult cuz you’ve got to step over their extended legs. Oh my….the food and the heavy-handed pour of the wine or “whatever you like”!!! I could get to like this!

We took a taxi in to our hotel “Paral-Lel”. It’s quite sufficient….not luxurious but clean and well equipped. Both of us were too pooped to try checking out the city. Tomorrow is another day.