Stopover in Barcelona for Spring Break
For Spring Break this year I decided to go to Prague and Barcelona with two friends. Julie and I were going to fly out of Barcelona to get to Prague. I took the overnight train from Granada leaving at 9:30pm and arrived in Barcelona 11 hours later. My ticket was a bit more expensive (€30) than the last time I took the overnight train. The promo tickets were sold out, and I was in the prefrente class. The seats were much nicer though than in the turista class I was in last time. They were much much more comfortable, and I was able to get a good night's rest.
We both arrived in the morning and our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we decided to spend the few hours we had in the city exploring Parc Güell. Parc Güell is one of Barcelona's famous parks. The area was owned by Eusebi Güell and was originally planned as an estate for well-off families. Güell asked Gaudí to plan and design the estate.
While the residential houses were never actually built, the rest of the area was constructed with viaducts and paths. The park was designed during Gaudí's naturalistic period, and many of his deisgns blend with nature, evidence of which can be seen today. After Güell's death, his heirs offered the park to the Barcelona City Council and it was opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around 2 years ago, they started charging an admission fee for Parc Güell. Majority of the park is actually still free, but if you want to get up close and see Gaudí's work, that's where the admission fee comes in. At €7 (if you buy in advance online), the price is quite high, but we decided it would be worth it and went for a visit. They also now control the number of people who enter as your ticket has a specific time slot in which you have to enter the park. In fairness, it was much much less crowded than the past few times I've been (which also makes for nicer pictures).
The weather was lovely in Barcelona, in the 20s and very very sunny. A much welcome change from Granada where it had been raining the whole week.
After hanging around the staircase in the main entrance and taking lots of pictures, we made our way around the rest of the park. Right above the main entrance is the Hypostole Room which was originally conceived as a covered space which could serve as a marketplace. The ceiling is formed of small domes built using the Catalan vault technique.
From there we made our way to the Austria Gardens named so thanks to Austria's donation of trees.
And finally we reached the main square, the Nature Square, which was meant for holding open-air shows.
Running around the square it is the famous undulating serpentine bench. The bench was designed so to enable the people sitting on it to converse privately.
The benches are done using trencadís, a mosaic type used in Catalan modernism, which consists of using broken pieces of ceramic and pottery. We rested there for a bit, relaxing, talking, and soaking up the sun. It was a gorgeous morning!
Unfortunately we eventually had to make our way back to Sants-Estació to take the train to the airport. We exited the park via the walkway which is actually a spiral ramp with helicoidal columns.
Back at the train station we got our bags from the lockers, I bought some lunch, then we hopped on the train to the airport. (The R-2 train leaves from platform 9 or 10 every :09 and :39 of the hour. A single train tickets costs around €4, but if you have the T-10 metro card, that can be used!). It was an 18 minute train ride to the airport (Terminal 2), then from there we took the free shuttle to Terminal 1 (another 12 minutes). We had both checked in online (though Julie had to print her boarding pass), so we made it quickly through security, had lunch while waiting in line, then we were on our flight to Prague!
We arrived at around 5pm, and reached our Airbnb at almost 6:30. We had dinner, then rested up for a day of exploring the next day!
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| Fancier seats |
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| I was amused because it had controls to recline your seat and put up the leg rest |
While the residential houses were never actually built, the rest of the area was constructed with viaducts and paths. The park was designed during Gaudí's naturalistic period, and many of his deisgns blend with nature, evidence of which can be seen today. After Güell's death, his heirs offered the park to the Barcelona City Council and it was opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around 2 years ago, they started charging an admission fee for Parc Güell. Majority of the park is actually still free, but if you want to get up close and see Gaudí's work, that's where the admission fee comes in. At €7 (if you buy in advance online), the price is quite high, but we decided it would be worth it and went for a visit. They also now control the number of people who enter as your ticket has a specific time slot in which you have to enter the park. In fairness, it was much much less crowded than the past few times I've been (which also makes for nicer pictures).
The weather was lovely in Barcelona, in the 20s and very very sunny. A much welcome change from Granada where it had been raining the whole week.
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| Beautiful walls |
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| Selfie with the famous dragon |
From there we made our way to the Austria Gardens named so thanks to Austria's donation of trees.
And finally we reached the main square, the Nature Square, which was meant for holding open-air shows.
Running around the square it is the famous undulating serpentine bench. The bench was designed so to enable the people sitting on it to converse privately.
The benches are done using trencadís, a mosaic type used in Catalan modernism, which consists of using broken pieces of ceramic and pottery. We rested there for a bit, relaxing, talking, and soaking up the sun. It was a gorgeous morning!
Unfortunately we eventually had to make our way back to Sants-Estació to take the train to the airport. We exited the park via the walkway which is actually a spiral ramp with helicoidal columns.
Back at the train station we got our bags from the lockers, I bought some lunch, then we hopped on the train to the airport. (The R-2 train leaves from platform 9 or 10 every :09 and :39 of the hour. A single train tickets costs around €4, but if you have the T-10 metro card, that can be used!). It was an 18 minute train ride to the airport (Terminal 2), then from there we took the free shuttle to Terminal 1 (another 12 minutes). We had both checked in online (though Julie had to print her boarding pass), so we made it quickly through security, had lunch while waiting in line, then we were on our flight to Prague!
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| We're in Prague! |
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