I woke up this morning around 11 at ate my usual breakfast. I decided that I wanted to go down La Rambla to check out some of the sights I haven't seen yet. I really was looking forward to seeing Gauid's Palau Guell, but unfortunately it closed at 2:30 and I didn't get a chance to see it. Before I left Anna told me to bring my coat because it was very windy today. I figured I would listen and bring my coat, but wasn't too worried since it's windy every day at home.
Once I got home from La Rambla I went on CNN.com, and the front page headline was "Four Boys Killed in Roof Collapse as Storms Batter Spain". This happened outside of Barcelona, near a sports center. The Spanish media have reported winds of up to 160 km per hour (99 mph) in parts of Catalonia. The winds would accompany a Category 2 hurricane,ranging from 96-110 mph (154 - 177 km/hr). So as you can see, it was very windy today...which cut my exploring short.
Anyways I left mi casa around 12:30 and got down to La Rambla around 1ish. First Font de Canaletes which is at the beginning of La rambla. It is said that if you drink from the fountain you "will fall in love with Barcelona and always return".
I continued to walk down La Rambla and turned off a side street to try and find one of the art museums, which I never found. I walked around a small area called "El Raval" It is a very old-fashioned area but is slowly changing. There is a lot of medieval archictecture there, but I didn't want to spend the day there...so I headed back to Las Ramblas. These next couple picture are in El Raval, the one of me is small, I forgot to enlarge it.
We found a small caffe where we could eat outside, but the strong winds took away from the meal. We only sat outside because it was 4 Euro cheaper. For 8 Euros we got a variety of tapas...
And also a seafood and chicken paella, which was interesting. I still don't know how I felt about that paella because I'm pretty sure some of the seafood was still living, but I still ate it. This picture below is of the paella and if you look closely you can see the eyes and legs on the shrimp!
\After lunch we headed down to the Monument a Colom where we admired this enormous statue of Christopher Columbus. Apparently there is an elevator that takes visitors to the top for a sensational view...but I definitely didn't see an elevator! This statue is very interesting and has engraving all over it. The monument is 262 feet tall, and was built in 1888.
This next picture I was standing on the Colom monument and looking towards the Port. It's too bad that the day was so crummy because usually it is an amazing sight.
The next photo is just of one of the buildings Port of Barcelona..
Frustrated with the strong winds, we decided to head back. Once I got back I strolled around Maragall for a little bit and checked out of the area that I had yet to see. It's definitely a nice area, and it's not far from the mountains either.
Tonight I might be going to Camp Nou again to see the futbol game..but it really depends on how expensive the tickets are. If not I will be going out to the city for another great night in Barcelona...hopefully the winds will die down!
