Barcelona

Happy Saturday evening everyone!

In this fifth and final post of this blog dedicated to Spain, I want to tell you about the experience I had on my trip to Barcelona, a city I had the pleasure of visiting twice, during a cruise of West Mediterranean sea: the first time was Friday 9th December 2016, whereas the second more recently on Thursday 8th August 2017.

As opposed to any other Spanish city, Barcelona has a unique spirit and personality. With its great boulevards, abundant parks and a rich artistic atmosphere full of life, this global city is an important centre of cultural and aesthetic interest.

Given that, in December last year, I'd done the typical tourist route that all the tourists do when they visit Barcelona for the first time, in August I followed another path that I planned before leaving, that allowed me to appreciate and discover other places in Barcelona, lesser known and lesser frequented by tourists, but nevertheless equally deserving of attention.

So, armed as always with a map and the camera from which I'm inseparable, having taken the shuttle that goes back and forth between Palacruceros, i. e. the Cruise Terminal, and the beginning of the Ramblas, the celebrate street of the city, which goes up to the Monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus, turning right and walking for around 10 minutes one reaches the first monument that I saw, that is the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.

It's a big and beautiful Gothic church named thus because it's located in the Ribera district, in the vicinity of the commercial and harbour area of Barcelona. As you can clearly see from the photographs I attach here, having entered its interior, one is left astonished by the height of its steeples, of Gothic style, and of its few decorated stained glass windows, through which the sunlight is filtered.

After visiting the church, carrying on straight ahead you'll reach the Parc de la Ciutadella, one of Barcelona's main gardens in which you can find many interesting attractions such as the Castell dels Tres Dragons (Castle of Three Dragons) that you can admire in the following photo

and a small oval lake, in which a sculpture is located in the middle, one of the most beautiful of Catalan Modernism, which is called the Desconsol.

Finally, leaving the park you'll find yourself in front of Barcelona's Arch of Triumph:

I hope you liked my account of my last trip. I'll see you in another post in which I'll tell you about another city of the splendid country of Spain that I hope to visit very soon.

See you soon! (A presto! )

Photo gallery