Weekend in Barcelona

We had a beautiful, but very exhausting weekend … Saturday morning at 9 our flight landed at the airport in Barcelona and soon we started to explore the city.
Following the guidance of our travel guide, we headed down La Rambla from Placa Catalunya - one of the central squares of the city where airport busses arrive - in the direction of Barcelona Harbor. After dropping the bags at our hostel (located, by the way, in the red-light district of the city) and a quick visit at the Theatre, we turned into the Old Town and admired the beautiful Cathedral and its cloister with the 13 swans (kept in the memoir of Eulalia, the patron saint of the Cathedral who died at the age of 13)…then we had a nice walk in the Ciutadella Parc, heading towards the Arc de Triumph, built for the 1888 World's Fair.
Our next stop was at the Sagrada Familia, the worldwide famous Basilica of Barcelona, which is being built for 125 years and we are quite sure now, that it will still take a lot of time and hard work to finalize Gaudi’s masterpiece. Since there are no words to describe it, you better take a look at our photos:

EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

We ended our first day’s city tour in Parc Guell, a garden complex with architectural elements, also designed by Gaudi and part of the UNESCO World Heritage (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Güell).
Our second day in Barcelona we spent by taking a trip on Montjuic, "the hill of World’s Fair and Olimpic Games”.
First we walked along the coast, all the way down from the statue of Columbus to Barceloneta, where we took a chair-lift up to the Montjuic (having a wonderful view on Barcelona Harbor) ... after a short visit at the Montjuic Castle, we headed towards the Olimpic Ring and had a great lunch inside the Olimpic Stadium ;-)
Next we visited the so called Poble Espanyol (or “Spanish Village”), which is basically a “one hour” way to get to know Spain. It’s been built for the 1929 International Exposition and consists of 116 fake buildings and artisan workshops, presenting in miniature all the different regions and typical architectural styles of the country. Our trip on the Montjuic came to an end at the main site of the 1929 World’s Fair, the main avenue leading from the grand Palau National to the Placa Espana (known for its Venetian Towers, which served as the main entrance to the Exposition).
Last but not least we visited the famous Passeig de Gracia, known for some remarkable pieces of the Catalan modernist architecture, designed by Gaudi (Casa Mila and Casa Batllo) and Montaner (Casa Lleo Morera) – all of them being World Heritage Sites.
On Monday we said good-bye to Barcelona with a final visit – at the Palau de la Musica Catalana – and flew back to Switzerland with lots of unforgettable experiences and hundreds of photos.