We readily admit our love of the Hop on Hop Off - Double Decker Bus Tour. Normally it is one of the first activities we do upon arrival. Since we had the car for the first week here, we put it off a bit. It is a great way to get oriented to a new city, see some of obvious sights that we may not want to go back to and most importantly see some things we did not know about and want to go back and delve in deeper. We took the R1 train into town and for only 2.50 Euro the pair of us are at Catalunya Station ready to Hop. Not sure which exit to use we just guessed and then walked out to see the busses right there. There are two competing companies and each company offers two different trips. The difference is that the company we chose has tickets that are valid for 24 hours and the other company's tickets are good for only one calendar day. So we took the green line trip already and now we can take the orange line today! Smart Touristing on our part.
Step right up for your touristic tour of Barcelona
The Arc de Triomf
Working with red brick
Very detailed
Nice Hat Square
His hat blew off, like mine did on the bus
There was an expo in Barcelona and this is one of many buildings built in 1888 it housed a natural history collection. It is the Castle of Three Dragons
Approaching the port area we find a large park
Columbus is up on a pedestal, pointing to where he parked the boat
In the center of town some truly epic sized buildings can be found
A wooden pedestrian draw bridge
We did not take the yacht out today, we are giving the staff some alone time
When a city is blessed with such great architecture from the turn of the century, they make a concerted effort to ensure that the new buildings will be special as well
This circular building is an example of a new building worthy of the Barcelona legacy
I wonder how the artist got inspired for this piece?
A bit abstract
The tail to the Gehry "Fish" sculpture
Here is the whole fish
Another interesting building
It is called the Glorious Tower
There are 4500 individual glass panes. They allow for ventilation and temperature control
The Theater building is classic and new at the same time. The columns look like a Greek Temple but the glass wall interior is all modern
This district is packed with new construction
Copper colored grid exterior
Men at work
The history of Barcelona's expansion plan was narrated to us
Approaching the bull fighting tring
It was a very famous bull ring
It is very ornate but no more bullfighting
Catalonia banned the practice due to the obvious bad outcomes experienced by the bulls
This wraps up our downtown section of the tour. Continue to follow us for the uptown section of the tour
