When we stay in one place for a month or more, we need to invest more time into the nuts and bolts of travel. We arrived, unpacked and over a few days we got our wash done, got to some stores and sticked up with tasty items. Here was also an opportunity to unwind from the last three weeks of travel. So that explains the gap in recent posts. Our first Barcelona selection was the historic Botanical Gardens. We pulled in and parked, just like we knew what we were doing. The Germans in front of us in the parking machine queue did not know what they were doing. They had to gave up trying to pay for parking. They gave the machine to me and I was able to complete the transaction so off we went to the gardens. We proceeded to walk right past them as the size of these gardens is pretty small. It did not help that there are giant exterior escalators all moving and shiny, much to much alluring. We rode the escalators up and then down again and went into the Gardens. These gardens are planted into two rectangular regions with a tunnel under the aforementioned escalators. We wandered through the first section that had a very nice vegetable garden. Then we crossed over to the other side for our picnic lunch. We watched the people, the plants and the birds. The great tit is a new life-bird. Then we drove to the other much larger, botanical gardens. It was located over by where some of the Olympic stadiums are located. We enjoyed the gardens and they had an extensive area of plants from Australia and it was fun to revisit these plants. The drive out took us along the port area and through a very hectic down town area! So glad we are staying a bit outside the city center.
A grand art museum is in this building but the day is too nice
It is a day for a garden stroll
A day to hold a flame up in the air while standing naked
Through the tunnel we navigated
The mermaid tail plant
We were soon surrounded by greenery
Insect motel
Authorized personnel only! oops.
Beans, flowers and a water feature
We did not see the front desk clerk
The poppies were popping
Plants growing out of the end of the gourds
Succulent city
The lavender bee
A very red beak on the red ringed parakeet
The monk parakeet
A waterfall
A great tit
How did these names evolve anyway?
An enigmatic telecommunications tower is also a sun-dial.
The newer and much bigger botanic gardens
This TV tower was built to transmit the coverage of the 1992 Olympic games
A very familiar plant we saw while in Australia
Like a bed of snakes
It is lonely at the top
Violet carpenter bee
Seriously happy flowers
What can this be off in the distance?
he gardens were a maze of pathways
Fancy pine cones
Blue and puffy
A large garden can support thick foilage
Purple unicorn spike
A huge pillar with Colombus on the top pointing off to the west
El Cap, a Roy Lichtenstein Sculpture from 1992
A sit down kind of guy
This place looks like we should explore it a bit more
A dragon with an umbrella
