Going up Mount Serrat

Already started being giddy whilst going up, must be something in the air but most likely cause I get to film from a high altitude. We took the aerial tramways to Mount Serrat, GoPro views captured awesome landscapes. Giving up on the mainstream society and becoming a monk, to be able to live up here in the mountain seems suddenly worthwhile. You may however request to join the monastery for their retreat and the only way to contact them is to write them a letter.

On the way from the train quite impressive views already. There are many exists in Barcelona metros, we nearly missed the train coming up because we couldn’t find our friends, otherwise have to wait for the next one which is at some later hours.

Again scams frequent in the metro, we had a lady coming up to us asking for money or phone because she got picked pocked. She had her bag and some plastic bag with her so it was too obvious but we offered to help her by taking her to some metro staff, she refused and continued asking other people.

This mountain seems to have the most interesting rock formation. Those curves reminisce us of Gaudi’s inspiration. And reminds me a bit of Mount Rushmore before the carving and sculpting.

I met quite a lot of people on the way and we added two more people to join us on the rest of our travel. A girl from Korea who can speak Mandarin and a Canadian guy.

Basilica at Montserrat

The black Madonna statues lives here, she is situated the back of the church. There are queues waiting to pray to her or with her or at her. Some people believe that the Holy Grail can be found here. Anyway, I didn’t pray to her, only mildly walked up and filmed other people praying at her.

People are sat in the church waiting for the world famous boy’s choir called L’Escolania to perform. It was quite packed and most people were just standing outside the church trying to hear a sound.

Trekking up the summit of the mount, there are many footpaths that leads to numerous pathways. The sun was beating down on us as we got higher and we then sat on the edge to enjoy the views. If we had more time, would have trekked the whole terrain, the mountain cable car closes at 5pm so if you missed that then you have to stay up there I believe.

Casa Batllo

We were in the Batllo’s room that had open air ventilation and natural lightening in which we thought was genius and wished that our house can be as awesome as this. I think we can learn a thing or two about building eco houses as such, combination of superb functionality and beauty in art.

What hits me upon first sight that the house appears to have a very organic skeletal feature and it is situated quite centrally, proving to be eye catching and with windows this big, peaking in will not be a problem.

This looks somewhat mystical, the colour vibrance is succinct and it looks every part of a tasty lollipop, now that is what an eye candy.

Given a generous amount of colourful mosaics and glasses that doubles as a translucent water surface area is absolutely impressive.

Here are the money shots, look at this juxtaposition of colours thrown together and what a fancy roof top to have, will entertain all the guests if that was your house. Look a bit reptilian with the roof lining, it is surely a master piece.

The height and depth of the structure of the building is amazing. The twist and turns of this organic shaped building is awe striking, by the time you are on the roof top, you are already tired from the endless meandering.

Spanish Antique Market

You can buy anything bric a brac here at the antique and flea market here. I bought a Mona Lisa painting that looks just like the real thing, except it is a tad smaller. Perhaps some gems can be found amongst the rubble but that doesn’t seem easy. A lot of fancy vintage items can be found if you look at it more than once

Bid Spain goodbye until next time

Check out the Vlog

Gisela Lee

Inside the school of Sagrada Familia

Picasso Museum

We arrived at the hall way inside Picasso Museum, on the wall hung a few paintings with vast amount of space surrounding it. One of the biggest collection of his work remains at this museum in Spain. How do we explain art? What we can see is cubism and surrealism, the beginning of modernisation of art. Salvador Dali’s paintings were on exhibition as well to give us a side to side comparison of both artists’s style and how they influenced each other.

Sagrada Familia

This basilica designed by Gaudi is on the top list of tourist attractions in Barcelona, upon first sight it strikes to be very impressive. Started construction in 1882, it is still not finished and the forecasted completion time is 2026, takes over 144 years to built. Cologne church in Germany took around 600 years to built, so I am not surprised. The stones were carved by hands before they had computer-controlled machine to cut stones as well there are about 10 more towers to be built on it. There are a lot of geometric forms and details such as organic curves that are to be noticed.

Spectacular intricate details can be seen, there are meanings behind all the little structures and carvings. There are some designs such as the leaves to replicate nature and gothic style still prevails.

It is vamped by a lot of tourists, I am one of the them. Not easy to capture all of the building in one photo, it is too majestic. There are many symbolism and liturgy words surrounding the building. Outside the building, the cranes are still working on construction.

Inside, you can observe more intricate details such as spiral stairways and the high vaults reaching the ceilings. The towers which you can go up was unfortunately shut on the day we went, due to hazards from the weather.

Those stained window glass are my favourite feature of this basilica, it lets in just the right amount of light. On the closer inspection, there are words engraved on the coloured glass. All in all, the building has allegory that represented the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.

Seafood Street

We happen to came across Passeig Joan Borbó, the renowned sea food street as well as the fisherman’s district, there are many restaurants offering fresh seafoods and other Spanish speciality dishes. Having a few glass of Sangria is a must, it consists mostly of wine and fruits. It is just a walk from Barceloneta beach and the market.

Seafood paella is considered as a national Spanish food, here we have a mixed seafood paella on a paellera. Aquatic meat is very popular here as fresh source are easy to obtain from.

Main dish consists of lobster, langoustine and other prawns on a bed of lettuce. Spanish cockles were succinctly fresh and definitely the sea can be tasted. It is set ablaze by a lemon soaked in alcohol for that extra presentation and ambience setting.

Our main transport mode was the Barcelona metro equivalent to underground tube in London.

Here is the Vlog of our antics:

Gisela Lee

We headed straight to The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria at Le Rambla, this is a market containing a vast amount of fruits, fresh seafoods and other local delectables. There are many butchers and fishmongers offering traditional chorizos and crustaceans as well. It was hustling and bustling busy, as local people shop for their grocery before the market closes for siesta. In Spain, it is very popular for people to take short naps before going on about with their day. They usually eat dinner at a much later time as well, the metro which is equivalent of tube in London will close around 12pm though.

Trying to talk Spanish

This is my first time to visit Spain properly, the other time I was heading straight from Barcelona airport to the cruise ship. Having little idea of how to navigate to our accommodation, we managed to find it after some excursion around town. The roads and streets are quite similar and getting lost is not a problem. Most local people we met, couldn’t converse with us in English or rather they couldn’t understand us, luckily I did download a Spanish translation app and few offline maps and metro apps. Trying to converse in Spanish as if I were a local by using the translation app sometimes worked with a few gestures.

Back to the Market 

Bursting with colours, a delicious aroma of freshly made bread and various spices can be observed. The colourful stands are almost neon to the eye with interesting textures popping everywhere, every stand deserved some attention. We all have tried out most of the local speciality food and most certainly indulged in a few tropical fruit smoothie, the coconut smoothies that I have tried was very decant and smooth, definitely recommend this and there are choices to mix it with fruits.

The fruits are at a bargain price, very well presented. We have some of the most exotic fruits on display. Get spoiled with choices to make, there are star fruits, passion fruits even tamarinds. What would you choose? Trying from a few stands, we shared most of the hunts that we found. Most fruits are for €1 per kg or a handful, that is a very good price.  

Here we are trying the shaved Spanish ham, I found it quite endearing. It has a special cured taste to it that is unforgettable. This cured ham is usually made from black Iberian pigs that are fed on barley and maize and only produced from south and south-western of Spain. It is one of the world’s most expensive ham and not easily available abroad elsewhere. It is also known as jamón iberico or pata negra and goes very well with bread or just on its own as a tapas.

Me trying out the juiciest oyster, splashed with some tabasco sauce and zest of lemon and it is ready to eat. It only costed €2 which is around £1.45 per oyster so it was quite a bargain for us.

Enjoying Gaudi 

Next destination was Parc Güell, one of Antoni Gaudi’s architecture art works, influenced by a lot of gothic and art nouveau style at that era, such natural structures follow nature’s design and it looks quite organic. Built between 1900 to 1914, taking almost 14 years just to complete this building and renovation is always ongoing. Gaudi became the national icon in Spain and he has influenced a lot of the culture of buildings. Combining art and architecture at the finest, he produced art and functionality at the same time. The Gaudi’s effect has styled some architectures and stands out among other buildings. He has a thing for juxtapositioning different geometric masses together, forming a new outlook to the perspective of what buildings should look or be made of.

Gaudi’s work reflects a very unique and distinctive style, very inspirational to dare to be different and stand out among the crowd. The architecture contains a lot of organic shapes, curves and interesting ornaments. Parc Güell was meant to be a public park and now is one of the world’s heritage site, certainly the charms of Gaudi, made the visit to Barcelona extra worthwhile. Gaudi’s house museum is also there, showing where the architect and his family lived at that time. Local people have free access to Parc Güell as a recreational park.

Then taking up a walk, you will come to a panoramic view of Barcelona complete with a beautiful structure in sight. You will be able to see quite far from here, even the port where it leads to the beach and sea.

Trying to swim at Barceloneta Beach 

Next headed to Port Barcelona, W hotel is just behind us, looking like the Burj Al Arab from Dubai, well that is what it remind me of anyway. Remember not to eat at the restaurants that are specifically tailored for tourists, the value for price and quality is low. Local people eat where there are Spanish menu only, whereas tourist food places have a menu with most of the world’s languages available.

Barceloneta Beach at night is spectacular, however the water will be a bit too cold for swimming. I was imagining hot sands beaches and sunny attire, guess that the season is not ripe yet. Beach Volleyball and other games were full at swing, some people hired out segways or electric scooters to transport themselves on the beach.

Here is the Vlog:

There will be an apartment tour of the room already messy, not my mess though haha. The drinking fountains featured in the video, legend says that whoever drinks from the main fountain in Le Rambla will always come back to Spain for some more, don’t know if that is true or not but we didn’t get a chance to try it anyway. The next blog and video will be up soon, keep in touch and we shall talk soon :)

Gisela Lee