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Barcelona continued....
In future we will have the set tapas lunch because each item complemented the other... Last time we ordered separate plates we had a kind of disjointed meal that didn't quite work.
We walked off our lunch through the pedestrian streets back to la rambles and then headed north to the casa Mila. No map needed as I had downloaded a handy barcelona guide that works without internet but is linked by some digital magic to Wikipedia and google so that you have finger tip information whenever needed. Said map clearly stated that it would be on our right but as we approached a group of illegal handbag, sunglasses and earphone vendors, to our left we spied a magnificent building ... Much smaller than the casa Mila yet clearly a Gaudi design. The queues outside suggested a tourist hotspot, the signs suggested it was an eating and drinking destination rather than a sight for seeing. Opened up my handy little app ... It was indeed Gaudi ....casa batilo or known locally as the house of bones because of its skeletal like construction.
Yes pretty impressive and good to look at ....but this 'is not the casa we are looking for' . Some 10 swelteringly hot minutes later we arrive to slight disappointment. Not planning to go inside, we came only for outside photo opportunities and to stand and marvel at its design. The sheet that covered the entire facade did have a representation printed on it ...
We remembered Rachel commenting that she hadn't been able to see the outside of 'la pedrera' ... We weren't going there so there was no need to remember this useful information. Not realising that la casa Mila is more recently/popularly known as la pedrera.
We crossed the grid like road system and landed back on the northern part of la rambles , which comprised mainly seating and cafés. Vikki told me later that la rambles was once a river. Universities were built either side of the river and then the river dried up. People then took to walking along the dried river bed so they turned it into a proper walkway. Bit like the footpaths in some of the big London parks... The footpaths became about because walking was the only affordable courtship in the 19th century for majority and this is how the plebs spent their half day off per month... The park architects frustration that they could not control where the masses walked. Instead they designed the roads through the parks for buggies, horses and grand carriages away from where the commoners would walk. Sorry that's London.... This happens every time I visit a major city, even if I admire it, enjoy it, even revel in it, I always end the sentence .... London is a great city!
Yes barcelona is lovely, a great city, we didn't see even half what we wanted to see and not even a particle of what the city has to offer. I am sure we will be back, in the same way we visit lefkosa each time we holiday in north cyprus, just to see a little bit more each time. But there are other great cities at home and away that we have yet to experience, Manchester , York, Madrid, Istanbul.... Ahhh Istanbul next.
Adios barcelona, you didn't steal my heart, but 'Asta la vista baby, I'll be back'.
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