As a Christmas treat for ourselves, we headed out to visit Barcelona for a few days. So, along with the four Piccos, we left Trento on the Sunday after Christmas, arriving in Barcelona in time for dinner, then spent three full days in the city before heading back on New Years Eve Day. Luckily for our group, Tim had planned full itineraries for us that we did a pretty good job of sticking to, leading us through the highlights of the city. Also luckily for us, Tim discovered a fantastic series of children's travel books, including one called Mission Barcelona. It's basically a scavenger hunt through the major highlights of the city. Complete with several things we wouldn't have seen without it.
The first day, we did a pretty basic walking tour of the major sites in the center of the city. We started with a subway trip to the top of Passeig de Gracia.
As a counterpoint to these organic Gaudi buildings were some much more pointy ones:
Next was the Casa Batllo. We stood awed in front of this building and discussed how we would modify Tim's plans for the next two days to ensure that we got a chance to go inside. So we'll come back to this. For now, five points for the scavenger hunt. Also, we learned that the rounded steeple and cross you see in the photo below is thought to represent the sword that Saint Jordi used to slay the dragon (which we had previously learned in our scavenger hunt book had threatened a princess and villagers that inhabited a small village not far from Barcelona). The dragon (as we learned) is one of the symbols of Barcelona.
Next door to Casa Batllo is the Casa Amatller, which was once home to a wealthy chocolatier (there's still a chocolate shop at street level). This building is, on any other block in any other city, the most beautiful building on the block. Here, however, it has to live in the shadow of Casa Batllo. Bummer.
On the front of the Casa Amatller, there's a carving of Saint Jordi slaying the aforementioned dragon (2 points!).
Finally, also in this same block is the Casa Lleo Morera. Also covered in dragons (2 points). Here we also discovered a bat sign (2 points) and were introduced to the other symbol of Barcelona. It was basically King Jaume's good luck charm (based on a legend that a bat flew into his tent on the night before a crucial battle that he then won).
We kept a-walking and found ourselves at the Placa de Catalunya. We found a statue of a woman on horseback holding a ship overhead (3 points); the statue, sculpted by Frederic Mares (another point) symbolizes Barcelona's history as a port city.
By happenstance, there was some kind of children's theater going on in the square, which we stopped to watch for a while. The kids loved it.
We started walking down La Rambla (one point), which is one of the most famous streets in Barcelona. It was packed with people, very vibrant, and full of things for kids to look at.
We found the Canaletes Fountain (2 points), which has a message inscribed on it, the gist of which is, if you drink water from this fountain, you will fall in love with Barcelona and never want to leave it. (Finding this inscription got us another point). We also found the city's coat of arms on the fountain (another point).
This tough angel holds watch outside of the Reial Academia de Cinches i Arts. The clock just to his right keeps Barcelona's official time (2 points).
A little further down, our scavenger hunt led us off the main path of La Rambla for the Portaferrissa Fountain, complete with multiple types of animals congregating outside the city walls and Saint Joseph watching over the city (a total of four points).
Next up, the Boqueria, the city's market. We found the sign for the market (complete with the city's coat of arms, a bat, and the name of the market (Mercat Sant Josep) -- 2 points).
We wandered through the market and kept our party from buying any meat, fish, vegetables, marzipan, etc. etc. We did grab some (delicious) fresh juices for all.
The goal here was to up our sugar levels a bit while we searched for a lunch place. We turned off of La Rambla in the direction of the city's main cathedral in search of lunch. At the turn was the Casa Bruno Cuadros, which used to be an umbrella store. On its facade are decorative dragons (2 points), umbrellas (1 point), and fans (1 point). Just outside the store (in the middle of La Rambla) is a huge mosaic by Joan Miro (2 points).
As we wandered toward the cathedral, we happened by Meson Jesus, a tiny little tapas restaurant. We went in. Luckily, the girls' scavenger hunt also gave them points for trying typical foods. Among many other things, we had some patatas bravas and some Spanish ham (one point each).
We topped off lunch with a stop at Satan's Coffee Corner. The place was adorable; the coffee was just ok.
The girls tried some super thick hot chocolate (half of churros and chocolate... does that mean they get a half a point?)
From here we headed on a circuitous route to the cathedral. This route included wandering by the church of Santa Maria del Pi, with a beautiful rose window.
So this cathedral is dedicated to Saint Eulalia, one of the patron saints of Barcelona. She was a 13 year old who lived in Barcelona back in Roman times (around the year 290). Apparently, the Romans told her she needed to give up her Christian beliefs. She said "no, thanks." They said, "no, really." She said, "nope, for real, no thanks." So they cut her head off. Legend has it that, immediately after her beheading, a dove flew out of her neck. Inside, we found Eulalia's crypt (2 points).
The church itself was gorgeous, including this wonderfully carved and gilded choir.
You can also take an elevator up to the roof of the cathedral for great views of the city, including the "other" church in town:
Back in the church, we visited the cloisters, where a flock of 13 geese live (yes, that number is representative of the year's of Eulalia's life; one point). We also found a fountain with another likeness of Saint Jordi slaying the dragon (2 points), and some stones in the pavement with carvings signifying different working guilds who helped build the cathedral (4 points total).
Outside the cathedral was the Placa Nova (where we stopped for a prolonged bathroom break and an ice cream). Within and around the plaza are remnants of the city walls, a bronze sculpture spelling out Barcino, the Roman name for Barcelona (2 points), and a Pablo Picasso sketch on the wall (2 points).
Some random graffiti...
Santa Maria del Pi again...
From the cathedral we walked back out to La Rambla and past the old umbrella shop. We saw some more sights along La Rambla, including into the Placa Real (a total of 3 points).
We (finally!) saw some of the human statues we'd been searching for (a total of 3 points by the time we were finished). We asked Cora after we returned what her favorite part of the trip was. She said the human statues. When asked which one, she said "the one pouring tea on Milena's head":
We finally made it down to the Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla, which is a monument to the fact that Columbus sailed under the Spanish flag (funded by Ferdinand and Isabella, as every American elementary school kid knows); when Columbus returned, he sailed into the port at Barcelona.
The monument boasts Barcelona's coat of arms (one point), Columbus's name in Spanish (one point), and an anchor (one point). From this point, we also saw the customs building (one point).
From here, we headed back to our apartment. On the way, we spied this photo-op in front of the maritime museum...
... and this lovely statue of a girl reading.
Because we were in Barcelona for four nights, and Barcelonians eat dinner too late for our little people, we decided that, each night, one adult would stay home with the four kids while the other three went to dinner. The first night (the night we flew in), I drew the "stay-home-straw" (I lost a round of rock-paper-scissors). The men went to the grocery store to get dinner for me and the kids, and kindly brought me back a bottle of wine. It was then that we discovered there was no corkscrew in the apartment. GP Macgyver'd the wine open for me anyway:
The second night, GP stayed home; Tim brought his camera with him, so he got some photos of nice nighttime street scenes, including the Casa Batllo nicely lit.
Scavenger Hunt Score Card: 63.5 points
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