In any case, onwards.
Sunday, February 1
Landed to near-blizzard conditions -- except with no accumulation to speak of, beyond a bit of slush in the streets. Probably the heaviest snowfall I've ever seen without any real accumulation. This photo doesn't really capture it, as it had largely let up by this point. This view is from the stairs leading down to the Metro station from the train station at Chamartin toward the Cuatro Torres area.
We had about nine hours to kill before catching our train to Barcelona, so we just wandered around the area a bit. I only snapped these two pictures before we headed off, though. This one is the Puerta de Europa.
Monday, February 2
The view from the balcony of the apartment we were staying at. We were on the second floor (by European numbering, with the ground floor numbered zero) on Carrer de la Marina near the Olympic Village.
Later in the evening, just wandering around the city. This intersection is in the Barceloneta/Port Vell area, near La Rambla.
La Rambla.
La Rambla and Placa Catalunya, looking west away from both.
Tuesday, February 3
Tuesday afternoon, walking along Carrer de la Marina on our way to the Sagrada Familia.
Friend wanted a shot of the pattern on this building.
Sagrada Familia
Can't really see it in this shot, but across the street from the church were, among other things, a Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and KFC. Obviously these places are all over Europe and the rest of the world, but the juxtaposition of Pizza Hut (which is visible in the full resolution version of this picture, but isn't really discernible here except as a small red banner on the corner) and the Sagrada Familia was a little too much for me to pass up.
Couple shots of the side.
Continuing on, we had no particular destination in mind and were just wandering the streets in a more or less northwesterly direction.
Eventually we ended up at Gaudi's Parc Guell. Unfortunately it was starting to get a little dark and a lot of my pictures here didn't really come out.
The two towers in the distance on the left stand near the Olympic Village and are two of the tallest buildings in Barcelona. They're also a handy way to mark our starting point, since, as I mentioned previously, we were only a couple blocks inland from there.
Closer in on the towers, with Sagrada Familia to the left.
Parc Guell in the foreground, looking out toward the city and the Mediterranean.
A shot of the actual park itself and one of the few that came out all right.
Back in the city, walking toward the nearest Metro stop to catch a train back to La Marina.
Found this library along the way, thought it was a cool building.
Back at Marina, looking toward the sea. You can see one of the towers, Hotel Arts, in the middle of the picture. The other, Torre Mapfre, is mostly obscured by trees and lights, but there's a little of it in there.
Wednesday, February 4
I feel like this could have been an interesting photo if I knew what I was doing. This is another shot at the courtyard outside the apartment from the balcony. Every morning that dog was out there with his owners. They'd have a brief conversation and see each other off for the day while throwing the ball around for the dog. The owners are up in the top corner and if I were more familiar with photography it may have occurred to me to capture them totally within the frame, but instead I was just paying attention to the dog. Oh well.
Another shot out toward La Marina from the balcony. Not sure why I felt compelled to keep taking this same shot; the view really doesn't change from day to day, but the city was just so beautiful that I couldn't help but grab the camera each morning when I stepped out there onto the balcony.
Today we head to Montjuic. In all honesty, the real draw here was the funicular, not the castle or anything else. Unfortunately, the funicular was closed for three weeks beginning the very day that we arrived for routine maintenance. I was really disappointed, but we still caught a bus up the hill to visit the castle.
View of the harbor from the castle.
While we were looking out at the city, this guy rode by on his bike. We could hear him singing quite clearly from where we were.
This is how far away he was.
Took a bunch of shots of the city from the top of the hill, even though most of them came out somewhat blurry (not sure if this is the limitations of my camera, my "abilities" as a photographer, or most likely, some combination thereof).
Heading back down the hill.
Standing in the Placa Catalunya, looking toward La Rambla.
The area around the University of Barcelona.
Near the Arc de Triomf.
No matter how many times I see it, I just never quite get over how seamlessly Europeans can integrate cars into the urban fabric. Here the entrance to a parking garage takes up no more space than any other storefront. Pretty typical, though. Car dealerships tend to be the same way, just regular storefronts nestled among all the rest.
The Arc de Triomf.
Looking through the Arc toward the Parc de la Ciutadella.
And back toward the intersection in front of the Arc.
Heading down the promenade toward the park.
Looking back toward the Arc.
When we got into the Parc, it was getting too dark to really get any good pictures. Still, there was a demonstration going on outside the Catalonian Parliament, so I tried anyway. This is the only shot I got that even marginally came out, unfortunately. My Spanish is bad and I don't speak any Catalan, but I gathered that they were protesting America, which came as no big shock I guess.
Thursday, February 5
I started the final day in Barcelona wandering around Barceloneta in the Ciutat Vella (old city) district.
The big building on the left that does not fit in at all with the rest of the architecture is a grocery store. I just stumbled upon this square with no idea that it was there. Actually, that happened a lot in both Barcelona and Madrid.
Port Vell
"The Prawn King" Sign me up.
Looking across Port Vell toward Montjuic. You can't really tell in this picture, but the top of that hill is the castle we visited on Wednesday. Just snapped the pic to create a sense of where these various places are relative to each other.
This is a different angle on the same intersection (Via Laietana & Passeig d'Isabell II) that I got during the first night in Barcelona (this picture)
Looking down Ronda del Litoral, which is actually a freeway, but here it's buried and there's a beautiful waterfront promenade on top of it, toward the Placa del Portal de la Pau at the southeast end of La Rambla, home of the statue of Christopher Columbus.
Closer shot of Columbus, with Montjuic Castle in the background.
The statue of Christopher Columbus
Heading northwest along La Rambla. This was the deadest I'd seen it, but you can see the weather wasn't really amazing -- not to mention it was the middle of a weekday in February.
Started to run into a few people as I progressed toward Placa Catalunya.
Gran Teatre del Liceu
Placa Catalunya, quite a bit busier than La Rambla.
I liked the giant thermometer on the side of this building, which was just southeast of Placa Catalunya on the Avinguda del Portal de l'Angel (which runs parallel to and north/northeast of La Rambla). As you can see, for as bad as the weather looks, it wasn't actually especially cold -- about 14 degrees (57 F). It had been even warmer before the clouds and rain moved in earlier in the day.
Urquinaona, heading northeast from Placa Catalunya.
Same spot, just a little further to the right. In retrospect I'm not sure why I took both of these pictures when one would have sufficed.
Hard to tell, but in the distance beyond this alley is the Arc de Triomf.
The Zoological Museum in the Parc de la Ciutadella.
Catalonian Parliament, with the two towers in the background.
This mammoth statue was in the park next to the parliament building. There were a couple kids hanging out underneath it, but they are mostly obscured by the legs in this shot.
Catalonian Parliament.
At this point my camera battery died and I wasn't able to get anymore pictures before we left Barcelona. How disappointing. I headed back to the apartment, packed up, and we headed to the train station to take the overnight train back to Madrid.
(Part 2)
