Barcelona, Day 2 - Jen is not cool enough for Gaudi

The Music Palace, with its beautiful mosaic ticket windows!
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We woke up and had free breakfast in the hotel, and then hit the streets.

We headed first for the Palau de la Musica Catalana, the music theater with beautiful mosaic tiles covering the facade.

From there, we headed to L'Eixample, the district containing most of the "modernista" architecture.

With our headsets up on the roof of Gaudi's apartment building -- we are such tourists.
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We saw a building that Antoni Gaudi, the most famous Barcelonesan architect, re-designed, called the Mansana de la Discordia.

This was Jen's favorite... and by favorite she means she didn't hate with a passion burning deep in her soul - the day just went downhill from there for her.

We then walked to La Pedrera ("the stone quarry"), Gaudi's most famous work.

We went inside this apartment building, touring the attic (for a lesson in history and architecture - Gaudi style).

Gaudi's Park Guell... our favorite Gaudi work of the day. We had a delicious lunch here of fresh strawberries and snacks from a local bakery!
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We then went up to the roof, with its interesting sculptures (Jen calls them henious eyesores, but Abbey thought they were kinda cool).

We got great views of the entire city.

We then got to tour one of the apartments in the building - Jen liked that (thank goodness, Abbey was starting to feel bad for dragging her along).

We then hugely underestimated the distance and overestimated our walking ability, and headed off for the Park Guell, a 15-acre plot where Gaudi really let his imagination run wild.

The cute Beatles cover band - we loved them!
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Jen actually liked this part, and we both especially loved the Spanish-hippie band playing beatles songs at the park's highest point, overlooking the entire city.

The mosaics were the most beautiful here, and the famous "dragon fountain" was at the entrance.

We couldn't find a cab, so convinced ourselves it "wasn't that far" to walk to another Gaudi masterpiece (Jen says she has no words for this one).

We got to the Sagrada Familia, a huge gothic cathedral that is still massivly under construction, even 80 years after Gaudi's death.

The beautiful ceiling mosaics by Gaudi.
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We think the American term "gaudy" must have come from Gaudi's name, because this church certainly was.

From there, we gave our feet a break and took a cab to the waterfront and Port Vell - the site of hundreds of sailboats and a few cruise ships.

There was a huge Lichtenstein sculpture called the "Barcelona Head" - we both loved it (Jen says she'd love anything after seeing Gaudi all day).

We walked along the waterfront to the Monument a Colom, a tower topped with a statue of Christopher Colombus.

La Sagrada Familia... the gaudy Gaudi church.
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From there, we headed down the famed "Las Ramblas," a street with gardens all down the middle and dozens of vendors and street performers.

We saw two female flamenco dancers making out as part of their "show" (gotta love Europe - the faces of the old tourists upon seeing this girl-on-girl action in the streets was priceless).

Our favorite part of Las Ramblas was by far the break-dancers, we stayed and watched them for a while.

We had dinner - tapas and paella - and then headed back (exhausted) to our hotel.

Lichtenstein's Barcelona Head
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We listend to the noisiest street in the world for about 3 hours, and kept commenting about it - like it would make a difference.

Thank goodness for our earplugs!!

Pics: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jennirc@pacbell.net/album?.dir=/2317re2&.view=t