Barcelona. A cool entrance sign.
Barcelona. At the foot of the Cristóbal Colón monument.
Barcelona. The Cristóbal Colón monument.
Barcelona. The top of the Cristóbal Colón monument at sunset.
Barcelona. The Cristóbal Colón monument at sunset.
Barcelona. A statue on a building near the Cristóbal Colón monument.
Museo Marítimo: Replica of an early Spanish submarine presented in Barcelona Harbor in 1859.
Museo Marítimo
Museo Marítimo: Tile depiction of the Battle of Lepanto. Miguel Cervantes (author of Don Quijote) lost a hand in this battle.
Museo Marítimo: Catalan atlas from 1375.
Museo Marítimo: Model of the Coca de Mataró, a 15th century Spanish ship.
Museo Marítimo: Nautical map from 1439.
Museo Marítimo: Models of Columbus's ships, the Niña, the Santa María (center), and the Pinta.
Museo Marítimo: Model of Magellan's ship, the Nao Santa Maria de la Victoria.
Museo Marítimo: Model of the Santísima Trinidad, a Spanish warship which fought in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Museo Marítimo: Replica of the Royal Galley of Juan de Austria. This was the ship that led the Spanish navy in the battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571.
Museo Marítimo: another view of the galley.
Museo Marítimo: bow ornamentation of the galley.
Museo Marítimo: small model of the galley.
Museo Marítimo: another view of galley.
Museo Marítimo: ship figurehead.
Museo Marítimo: model of the frigate Hijas de Pineda.
Museo Marítimo: model of an 18th century warship, 40 cannons.
Museo Marítimo: another model of a sailing ship. Many of these models were made for the navigation school of the Barcelona merchant marine. They are incredibly detailed, and used to teach the students how to pilot an actual ship.
Museo Marítimo: cannon from an 18th century warship. Notice the coat-of-arms of the commander, worked into the metal of the barrel.
Museo Marítimo: Typical captain's cabin in a sailing ship. Compare this to...
...the typical crewman's quarters. It's nice to be the captain!
Museo Marítimo: painting of the Barcelona seawall, removed during the 1800's when the harbor was expanded and modernized.
Morning on the Ramblas. Things get wild as the day wears on.
The Ramblas is where all the best pets are found. Catalans seem to prefer unusual animal companions. Birds...
Majestic Parrots...
Cute ducklings...
Bunnies...
Turtles...
Chipmunks...
Chickens?... and other odd birds...
A pigeon taunting his unlucky friends and filching a free meal.
Flower vendor on the Ramblas.
A statue near our hotel on the Ramblas.
Street actor on the Ramblas, Barcelona.
Street actors on the Ramblas, Barcelona.
Street actor on the Ramblas, Barcelona. The Medusa was shy.
On the Ramblas, Scott really liked this building in the dark.
On the Ramblas.
Plaza de la Constitución, Barcelona
The Green Man shows up in some unusual places. We found this guy lurking on a column beside a door.
The post office
A cool door
A panorama of the city from Montjuic Park.
A sign on Carrer Portaferrissa. It reads, "Respect and spread civility in the streets."
Another sign on Carrer Portaferrissa. It reads, "Vehicles: moderate speeds and short stops."
Artwork over a door on Carrer Portaferrissa.
A water fountain just off the Ramblas.
The Barcelona Cathedral. Note the intrusion of modern day AV equipment.
The Barcelona Cathedral.
The Barcelona Cathedral. A baptismal font.
The Barcelona Cathedral. While we were there a mass began and we were fortunate to hear the choir sing. It was heavenly.
The Barcelona Cathedral. Saint Antoni De Padua
The Barcelona Cathedral. The cathedral was undergoing some restoration and practically covered in scaffolding, so this picture of a gargoyle is one of the few photos that we have of the outside.
The Cloister in the Barcelona Cathedral.
The Cloister in the Barcelona Cathedral. Geese have always inhabited the cloister.
It's a frog fountain... How could we not take a picture of it?
One of the Cathedral towers that was not obscured by scaffolding. A view from the Cloister.
The Cloister in the Barcelona Cathedral. The statue of Saint George and the dragon. From the pictures that I have seen, I always thought that this statue was life size, but it is actually only about 18 inches tall and sits atop a fountain. Yes, we drank from the fountain. We will return.
The statue of Santo Cristo del Amparo in the Cloister in the Barcelona Cathedral.
From the above statue. I found the woman's expression particularly poignant (is it the virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene?).
Rude boys even in the Barcelona Cathedral.
More rude boys. The craftsman had very original ways of expressing themselves.
The Cloister in the Barcelona Cathedral. Sepulchre of Arnau De Gurb, 1284
The pigeons are very resourceful at finding homes in the old buildings.
Outside the cathedral.
Inside the Choir of the Barcelona Cathedral.
The amazing organ that we heard during the mass.
The Sardana Dances. A dance to demonstrate Catalan unity.
And as the dance goes on, the circle grows as neighbors and tourists join in. Yes, we joined in the dance.
And the band played for dance.
And the dance goes on...
Santa Maria del Mar Church.
Santa Maria del Mar Church. It's a little blurry, we could not get very close.
Santa Maria del Mar Church. Amazing glass!
The organ in Santa Maria del Mar Church. We heard this one play also. There is absolutely nothing like hearing music in these old churches.
And as we were walking toward the Block of Discord, off a side street we saw this building.
So we went to investigate...
The Orefó Catalá had some amazing sculpture and mosaics.
The Orefó Catalá.
The Orefó Catalá
On the walk to the Block of Discord.
Casa Batlló designed by Gaudí.
Casa Milá designed by Gaudí.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. This cathedral has been under construction since 1883. It is not expected to be completed for another 50 years.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. The Modernista side.
Sagrada Familia: A magic square displayed near the entryway. Note that the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal add up to 33, which was the age of Jesus at the crucifixion. See if you can find other 33-groups.
Inside the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral. Yes, it is very much a construction site.
The sculpture around back entrance of the cathedral tells the story of Jesus’ birth. The Nativity in the center, with sheppards, the Magi, and Heavenly Host looking on.
The Nativity.
Angel above the back entrance to the cathedral.
More angels above the back entrance to the cathedral.
The Magi.
Shepherds at the birth of Jesus.
The Heavenly Host looks down from above.
More angels.
The flight to Egypt.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. The back side has more traditional sculptures.
Other sculpture on the back of the cathedral depict other events in Jesus' life.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Sculpture depicting Herod's order to kill all the infants born in Bethleham.
The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. The columns beside the main entrance are supported by turtles... a sea turtle on one side...
A tortoise on the other...
We took the elevator on the back side of the cathedral up to the top, and were rewarded with views of the cathedral in construction, complete with its weirdnesses...
More weirdnesses...
Intriguing views of towers...
More weirdness atop of a cathedral tower.
And magnificent views of the city...
The Torre Agbar Tower as seen from the cathedral. (It is amazing what you can do with a zoom lense.)
And more magnificent views of the city...
Another view of the city as we walked down from the top of the cathedral.
A view of the city as we walked down from the top of the cathedral.
More weirdness under construction…
A completed pinnacle of a tower. The colorful sculpture is done in mosaic.
Another mosaic sculpture.
View on our way down the tower.
The walk down.
View of the shadow of the cathedral on a nearby building. Occasionally we need to get artsy...
View on our way down the tower. We enjoyed some wonderful views of the Mediterranean, complete with cruise ship.
You find pigeons resting in the most interesting places. This one in the shadow of "Prayer".
The walk down...
The staircase down resembles a Nautilus shell.
Couldn't resist the opportunity to take a "Toe" picture.
There was even art in the bathrooms.
This sign was an intelligence test. Which direction is the exit to Marina Street?
On the cable car up to the castle at Monjuic.
The castle at Montjuic.
A view from the castle at Montjuic.
A dance competition at the castle.
Sunset at the castle.
Our first view of the monastery at Montserrat.
The stats on the Aerial up to Montserrat. Inquiring minds want to know…
A view from the Aerial.
Montserrat
Local wildlife.
Local wildlife. Scott found a friend.
Scott and his new buddy.
A view from the trailhead up to Sant Jeroni.
Interesting rock formations on the trail to Sant Jeroni.
A view from the trail.
More interesting rock formations seen from the trail.
A church clinging to the rocks.
The trail... went down (Nooooo!), before it started the assent (Uggghhh!!!) to Sant Jeroni.
View from the trail.
A view of the monastery from the trail. We had climbed quite a bit, and were still not close to the top.
The trail passed through a rock pass. Somewhere after this, we chose the wrong fork and began our ascent up to the peak on the return trail which consists of lots of stairs.
And the trail went on... and up...
Scott ponders the forks in the trail. We had three choices. There was a sign post here, without a direction sign. Little did we know that somewhere between the rock pass (shown earlier) and this point, we had already chosen the wrong path. We were about to ascend to the Sant Jeroni peak on the return trail to the Monastery, known as the “Escales dels Pobres”. This is a more difficult route as it is much steeper and has lots of stairs. (Groan!!! I just love hiking uphill.) Not long after we chose a path, we met another hiker coming down and confirmed that we were on the trail to Sant Jeroni.
The trail... the stairs have not begun yet.
The trail goes up.... (Ugggghhhh!!!!)
We arrive at the Hermitage and the beginning of the stairs...
View from the trail... still going up...
View from the trail... almost to the top!
View from Sant Jeroni peak.
Local wildlife at the top.
Toe pictures are mandatory.
The directional map at the top.
Another toe picture.
On the trail back down to the monastery.
Some of the stairs on the Escales dels Pobres. We must have descended thousands of uneven stairs.
The altar at the Hermitage.
A view of the monastery from the Escales dels Pobres.
Ah, language differences! "Bombers" means "firemen" in Catalan. Imagine our alarm when we first saw this vehicle.
Entrance to the basilica at Montserrat.
A cool exit sign...
