AN OVERVIEW OF BARCELONA

We decided that we should start to get familiar with the city as we have pretty much settled in to our new home.  We got on the redline and headed to Placa de Catalunya to visit the tourist office and pick up some free info about the city.  At that time we decided to take a bus tour of the city to just get a feel for the different areas.  The tourist office recommended a company and we purchased our tickets and were off and running.

The bus company offers three tours, the red, blue and green.  We elected to take the red line first.  It takes approximately 2 hours to do the complete circuit without stopping and getting off to explore any of the areas.  I know that we will be back to most of the highlights so I'm just going to show some pictures and mention some of the highlights.

Beautiful and interesting architecture throughout the city.

One of the many buildings by the architect Gaudi. 

The Joan Miro museum.

We stopped in this area by the water to grab a bite to eat at one of the local tapa's establishments

We sat inside however.  It was rather cold riding the double decker bus.  Poor Sharon had not brought hat or goves thinking it was really nice out.  In fact it was but riding outside on the bus can get awfully cold.  She warmed up with a cup of hot coffee and we all felt better after a bite to eat.  

This was taken near the Olympic stadium.  Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics.

Having completed the Red line tour we decided to transfer to the blue line and do another two hour tour.  We thought we would be seeing a lot of Gaudi's works.  As it turns out the bus drops you off and you have to walk to those sights.  Poor Sharon and Sandi were freezing so they went below while I braved the cold.  I really don't know why I did except I had come prepared for the cold so I wasn't too bothered by it and I thought there would be things to see and photograph.  There really weren't so eventually I joined my two friends in the lower level of the bus.

Our first glance at the Segrade Familia, the astonishing unfinished church in Barcelona designed by Gaudi.  When asked when it would be finished he replied, "Don't worry.  My client has all the time in the world".

The side you see here is the Passion facade.

This is the older part of the church.  We will be going on a tour of this in the future.  It is most often listed as the number one tourist attraction in Barcelona. 

This was one of Gaudi's first projects.  

Of course no tour would be complete without seeing the football stadium.

Aftr completing the two tours we realized what a big city we are living in,  Population is 1.6 million and close to 5 million in greater Barcelona.  The wonderful thing is they have wonderful mass transportation and using the metro can get you to almost all the sites.  

I'm really excited to be here in this beautifuol place and feel so lucky that I'll be spending two months exploring and getting to know the city.