Avant de vous montrer ce que nous avons vu, il faut que je commence par vous dire qu'on est un peu tarés. Enfin moi surtout et qu'Hubby est assez patient pour me suivre. Non parce que Montjuic on y est allés.
Deux fois.
Dans la même journee.
Tot le matin nous y sommes allés en courant. On c'est presque perdu mais heureusement les collines c'est facile, soit on monte, soit on descend, on finit bien par trouver quelque chose. Courir un dimanche matin devant le Stade Olympique de Barcelone c'est quand même beau, inspirant.
Il faut croire que nous n'en avions pas assez puisqu'on est revenu après le petit-dej en suivant quasiment la même route.
Before I show you what we saw, I should start with the fact that we're a little crazy. Well ok, mainly I am and Hubby is patient enough to follow. Because you see we went to Montjuic. Twice. In the same day. Early in the morning we went there for a run. We almost go lost but thankfully it's easy with a hill, you either go up or down and always end up finding something you recognize. Running in front of the Olympic Stadium of Barcelona on a Sunday morning is beautiful, inspiring. Obviously we didn't have enough since we hiked back up there after breakfast following a similar route.
What I love with Europe is that there is is never a shortage of historic monument. Monuments that would seem to be oddly used for many American, I imagine. For example, the beautiful building below turned out to be... the post office.
We went by way of the sea shore to go to Montjuic. It's a pleasant promenade with several statues, old boats and mainly a lot of sun since no buildings hide it. Dare I say that the temperature was 62°F?
Above the roofs we could see Christopher Columbus pointing towards Italy.
We could also see "La Vela", a W Hotel located at the end of the Barceloneta quarter. Walking in front of the bridge I couldn't help but think about our Junior High school trip. We were far more interested in laying in the sun to
In front of the Port de Barcelona building. Right before going up Montjuic hill. There was a small flea market that kept us busy about 5 minutes. Nothing all that interesting.
Now I do have to tell you. From time to time I would ask Hubby to pose in front of such and such building. I wanted pictures of us in Barcelona. He would do it with more or less enthusiasm. But then, as we crossed a park he begged for a picture that I will let you see below. Obviously I still don't understand men, well mine at least.
We also heard and encountered Barcelona's green pigeons. What do you mean green pigeons don't exist? Sure they do. We saw them in the middle of the grey pigeons at Park Guell and then among themselves in Montjuic. Oh fine, their official name is Monk Parakeet, but that's just a detail. Truth be told it's pretty weird at first when you see a green bird in the middle of pigeons, and they are really loud!
There are all sorts of ways to get up to Montjuic, among others a gondola, several roads and stairs. We picked a set of stairs and quickly had a beautiful view over the city.
From the gondola site we went up via Carretera de Monjuic, there is a park all along the (steep) road with beautiful terrasses overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
At the summit of Montjuic is the castle. The entrance is free and the fortress offeress huge terrasses with on one side a view over the sea and on the other the city. However we missed an obstacle race by not much, it looked really fun and we saw many people in costume. Well it was probably a good thing as I would have likely ruined my running shoes.
I wanted to visit a museum during our time there. We could have done the Picasso museum, litteraly a stone throw away from our accomodation, but I was more curious about the Foundation Miro, a little more unique. Unfortunately our detour by the castle made us miss the last entrance by 15 minutes. Well at least we could still take pictures with E.T. and in any case we were getting hungry.
The Calatrava tower, a communication tower but also symbol of teh 1992 Olympic Games that took place there.
Before going back down we went by the MNAC. The Museum of National Catalan Art was built for the 1929 World Exhibition. I don't know if it's true, but I heard that the building was to be destroyed after the exhibit but was given a few more years and ultimately was turned into a museum.
What I can tell you though is that once standing in front of the MNAC the city offers itself to you, one can see the Tibiado far away, the Sagrada Familia, the Four Columns, etc. A beautiful spot to take an official picture of our trip.
The MNAC as seen from the bottom of the stairs.
The Four Columns have a story, originally built in 1919 they represent Catalonia and the four stripes of the flag. They were destroyed in 1928 during a dictatorship the forbid all symbols of Catalonia. The current columns are a replica from 1999.
The Venitian towers mark the beginning of the way to the MNAC.
Barcelona's Arena. The corrida is now forbiden. The Arena has been transformed as a mall. I can't help but think it's a shame, it's a little bit of Spanish culture that goes away.