First day in Barcelona

My plan for posting about this trip was to wait until I had started back on the Camino, but I had a great walk around Barcelona on my first full day here. I basically set out walking in the general direction of the Sangrata Familia Basilica, I could see it in the distance from the very narrow balcony on my hotel room.

I have 2 rules for getting through the time change adjustment in a quick fashion. The first is to not allow myself to go to sleep on the travel day until I can see the sun go down at my destination, the second is to get up first thing the next morning and go for a walk in the sun. Last night I walked in the immediate area of my hotel, eventually I sat on a park bench across the street from my hotel for about 30 minutes until the sun had gone down. First thing this morning I put in about 5 miles of walking, just wondering around the city, working my way towards the basilica. I got my first glimpse of the church through a window, I could mostly see the construction crane.

After winding around through the smaller side streets I walked around the corner and there was the basilica.

As I continued on I simply walked towards anything that got my attention which wasn’t difficult as there are so many unique structures here. Eventually I made it to a brick version of the Arch de Triumph.

I now started to walk in the general direction of my hotel. The larger streets have a lot of people out walking on them so I tried to stick to the smaller side streets.

Not long after passing by this small street my eye was caught by a structure with long balcony

on what ended up being the side of the building. The balusters on the balcony were made of glass.

I found this all to be very impressive, but then I made my way to what is the front of the building. There were at least 2 different tour guides that were stopped with their groups. This turned out to be a theater of some sort.

As I walk around through these small streets I have just happened along on some stunning structures that are tucked in here and there.

As I made my way back to the larger thoroughfares I am now walking in much larger crowds of people.

I have walked 5 miles by the time I make it back to my hotel. Malcom texted me that they have arrived and will be at our hotel in the next hour.