Spanish Sojourn - Monday

Our last full day in Barcelona, we started off with a bit of a sleep in and a healthy Special K breakfast (so handy that Special K is sold everywhere!) and got the tube to Montjuic which is the area where all the parliamentary buildings are as well exhibition and convention centres and what we were most interested in, the Olympic stadium.

Our first thought and one that stuck with us all day was that it was odd. There was this huge space, and then these random Olympic venues dotted around with no sense of order or logic. There was also no other people around at this stage.
The first thing we came across was the Magic fountain of Montjuic, this does a show with lights and music on the weekends so we missed it, but from the photos we googled after it looked pretty cool.

 

From there we strolled towards what we hoped would be the Olympic stadium, and we got there eventually. First we found the equestrian park, and the tennis courts which both looked like they hadn’t been used in years. Then we happened upon the Montjuic Communications Tower (now that’s a snappy name if I’ve heard one), this white tower was built to transmit television coverage of the Games. The base is covered with trencadís, Gaudí's mosaic technique created from broken tile shards.

Because of the tower's orientation, it works also as a giant sundial, which uses the Europa square to indicate the hour. Next to the tower is the Palau Sant Jordi which is where the gymnastics were held and next to that was the actual Stadium. We wandered in at the back of a tour (not really sure if you had to pay or not) and had a peek. Looked like any other stadium really.

After that we found these gardens and had another wander with the idea that we would find this cable car to take up right up the top of this mountain where Montjuic Castle sits. Again, Barcelona directions and maps failed us so we ended up doing the thing that we do best – we walked. Bearing in mind that it was a scorcher and it was the middle of the day, we did ok.

Montjuïc Castle was first built in 1640 and it was generally the place where whoever was in charge at the time would use to bomb the city if people started to revolt.
After all this, the castle was used as a military prison until 1960, then as an army base.

 

We wandered in, there wasn’t much to look at really, it had a really cool view from the top over the harbour on one side and the city on the other. It struck us again how massive the Sagrada Familia was when you see it context of the rest of the city.
 

By this time we were hungry and hot, not a good combo. So we walked back to the city centre, grabbed some food from the market and headed north to the beaches. Hamish chose the spot where we dumped our stuff and surprise surprise, we were right in the middle of lots of young Spanish ladies who sunbathe “European” style. We swam, although the water was warm it was a bit polluted, but in saying that we were right next to the city. We hung out there for ages, first time on the beach all summer!

Hamish fit right in with the locals

Sandy and tired, we caught the confusing web of metros back to our hostel. Barcelona has good public transport but they seem to have way too many metro lines that don’t intersect with each other much meaning lots of changes. We were pretty keen for a shower and a home cooked meal when we got back but unfortunately the hostel had temporarily lost water which was very annoying to say the least. But we got there, and after a quick dinner of pizza and salad we hit the hay.

Highlights: Spending time on a beach was pretty sweet
Lowlights: Walking way too much, takes it out of you…and your jandals!
Interesting Fact #1: The Barcelona Olympics provided many firsts; · South Africa was allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time since apartheid and following its reunification in 1990, Germany sent a single, unified Olympic team for the first time since 1964.
Interesting Fact #2: Fresh coconut, although extremely tasty and thought of as a fruit, is actually incredibly fatty.