Becoming Fans of Barcelona

So right after visiting Tibidabo and riding the funnicular down the hill a bit, we walked across the street to catch the tram.  This quaint Spanish restaurant was saying, "Take my picture!"  :)  It was really charming and looked so inviting, but we had places to be.  We were going to meet DJ's co-worker Brian and his wife, Jaime, at the beach somewhere later on.  We had some places to see before hand, so no time to linger.

We caught the tram and then caught one of the buses on the blue line and were on our way.  If I remember right, the picture below is part of a convent.

You might recognize the church the bus is headed for----I took a close-up of it the day before.  At this point we were still re-tracing steps on the blue line.

There's something about a warm summer breeze, sunshine, and riding in an open-air vehicle that is so liberating, so invigorating, so FUN!

More of the palace complex---from the outside, of course.

Down the road and around the corner, and we were at the home of Futbol Club Barcelona---that's right, Barcelona's soccer team, which is currently "hot stuff" as the team won the 2011 European Championship!

Somewhere along what we would call Avenue Diagonal, we switched from the blue line to the red line and headed towards the coast, but we still had a ways to go.

This piece of sculpture is one of many in Barcelona.  This one is more modern, of course, but there is sculpture from many different genres.

More sculpture (this one at Placa d'Espanya)---beautiful stuff everywhere!  Unique architecture, history, and beautiful vegetation were abundant:

Venetian towers at Placa d'Espanya, a beautiful plaza built for the 1929 World Exposition.

Somewhere in our travels, we drove by the Olympic Stadium (I couldn't get a good shot off), used for the '92 Summer Olympics.  The European Rugby Championships were going to be held there the following month.

This beautiful building was built for the 1929 World Exposition.  I snapped shots from two different directions as the bus when up and around the hill it was on.  Wish we would have had a stop at this one to get better pictures---maybe next time!

This unique looking structure is the radio tower from the '92 Summer Olympics:

The Joan (he's a guy---not Joan like we know Joan) Miro Museum contains 14,000 works of this native Barcelonian.  It also houses works of other Barcelona artists as he wished.

Another modern sculpture, then another shot with my favorite (very old) architecture behind it:

The Port of Barcelona:

And this entry from Wickipedia describes the next two pictures.  There is a "(197 ft) tall monument for Christopher Columbus at the lower end of La Rambla, Barcelona, Spain. It was constructed for the Exposición Universal de Barcelona (1888) and is located at the site where Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas.  The monument serves as a reminder that Barcelona is where Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabella and Ferdinand after Columbus' most famous trip."  So there you have it!  Sorry that this first picture is from the back (remember I'm on a bus that is moving).

This one looked like a giant lobster or something:

Sixty-four feet of mosaic and concrete, Barcelona Head is a work by pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein, that is located near the harbor area.

There are multiple harbors and beaches along the shores of Barcelona.  Our bus drove down in and around several of the piers and harbor areas:

This is where we got off the bus to meet Brian and Jaime---the Port Veil stop.  We scoped out two or three beaches before they met us---there are some that aren't family appropriate (I'm not sure if any are, people are very comfortable in their skin, if you get my drift):

When they got there, we spent some time (at least five minutes) enjoying the water.  I've got to say, I really wish my body and the beach got a long.  I so wanted to soak all this up!  Don't you love the blue?:

Proof that my feet (looking very distorted because they're in the water) have been in the Mediterranean!

Somehow I missed getting pictures with Jaime in them:

I shouldn't say we all enjoyed the water.  Somebody didn't want to get his feet sandy and have to put his shoes and socks back on.  Isn't he the cutest "keeper of the goods" you ever did see?

After a late lunch (snack) at a beachside cafe, we were off on the green line to see another corner of Barcelona.  Here's another shot of the Torre Agbar, (you could see this from a distance in some of our other shots).  We affectionately called it "the torpedo building"---38 stories high (housing mostly offices), it has become another icon in Barcelona in it's own unique way:

This is the headquarters for one of the largest banks in Spain.

Just a glimpse of another one of Barcelona's cathedrals (under renovation, like a lot of Europe!).

We got back to our original bus stop just in time to enjoy an Italian dinner with the McPheeters.  Then it was back to the hotel to pack it up---we had a flight to catch back to Basel on Sunday morning.  Ended up loving Barcelona.  In fact, it made it into our top five places.  We told each other we really needed to come back---there was so much more to explore and enjoy.  Since then, we have found a few other places that have "bumped" Barcelona down the list, but it's still in our top 10!!