Tag: Barcelona

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Barcelona to Rome

Our flexible planning strategy didn't work out for Barcelona. We both wanted to stay there longer. Our next stop is Rome, and Barcelona to Rome by train is 20+ hours, and it is under 2 by plane. The problem is you can't just show up at the airport and buy a ticket like you can with the train, so we made a reservation and stuck to it. Barcelona is a city we will come back to I think.

Before we left we did manage to visit the Veeva European HQ.

Yanmei in front of the 1000 employees poster
Yanmei and me on the roof of the office building

Anyway we left for Rome. Yanmei wanted to spend some time in the French countryside, visiting small towns etc. Originally we planned to go back through France by train to Italy, but after we found out how long it would take, we decided to take the plane directly instead of sacrificing future cities in Europe. It seems like we have a lot of time, but Yanmei's visa only allows for 41 days in Europe and they are going by fast. To make up for missing the French countryside, I booked a hotel in a small village outside of Rome, so we can experience the Italian countryside. I also reserved a rental car so we could drive around.

After another bad experience with Hertz (our “reserved” car for 12:30pm wasn't ready until 2:30pm), we finally got on the road to our hotel. Driving in Italy isn't bad, so far, but maybe that is because we haven't gone into Rome. The car we ended up getting was a Fiat Panda diesel with manual transmission, not what we reserved but whatever, it seems pretty nice. We're staying in a town called Grottaferrata.

View from our balcony with Rome in the distance

In the evening we went into town for dinner. I think this was a pretty authentic Italian place.

-David

 

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Barcelona

Last night after I posted the blog, I found out we had no bottled water, so I went out to buy some. It was late, nearly midnight, and I wandered around looking for a shop. People were driving around honking their horns. Beep beep beep-beep-beep! I didn't get it and figured it was standard Saturday night behavior in Barcelona. Finally I found a shop and got some water. By the time I got home Yanmei was getting worried and told me she already started planning her explanation to my mother about how she let me get kidnapped or killed in Barcelona. 😉

The next morning, or rather about lunch time we headed down to the beach, which is less than 10 minutes walk from where we are staying. There is a restaurant there two people recommended to us for paella. We found out yesterday that things work on a different schedule here. Restaurants open for lunch at 1pm and dinner at 8:30pm. Anyway we went to the restaurant and I ordered paella and Yanmei ordered fiduea, which is paella with noodles instead of rice.

Before
After

 

In the afternoon I booked a motorcycle tour. Yanmei wasn't too thrilled with this idea.

I think she ended up enjoying it though. The motorcycle allows you to cover a lot of ground and the driver was also a knowledgeable guide. Having a guide show you a city really helps you learn about it. For example we learned that all these flags hanging from windows are indications of the Catalonian separatist movement.

There were a lot of people wearing Messi shirts, which reminded me that I knew Barcelona was in the Champions league finals (soccer) and it was soon. I asked our guide if that match was today. He said it was last night and Barcelona won. Suddenly the people driving around honking at midnight made sense. 🙂

Another stop at La Sagrada Familia

There are lots of interesting buildings in Barcelona.

Historical hospital. Two vintage cars pulled up as we were taking pictures.
Casa Vicens, Gaudi's first house that made him popular
Another Gaudi building. Although difficult to see from this angle the roof looks like a dragon and the tower like the hilt of a sword, St. George slaying the dragon. St. George is the patron saint of Catalonia and scenes like this were meant to show Catalonian independence during a time when you could not show their flag openly
Casa Terrades. Believe it or not this is Veeva's office in Barcelona.

Good tour.

In front of the port and Mediterranean Sea

We headed back to our apartment before they closed the streets for the Barcelona FC victory parade.

-David

 

 

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Paris to Barcelona

We got up early to catch the 7:15am train to Barcelona. It's a high speed train and the route is Paris to Montpellier, and then along the coast of the Mediterranean with several stops before Barcelona. It only takes a little over six hours and Yanmei and I were both able to sleep for some of it. This was the first train we've taken that ended up behind schedule, although it was only about 15 minutes late to arrive in Barcelona.

After we got settled into the apartment we are renting we headed out to see Barcelona's most famous attraction, La Sagrada Familia. This is the cathedral that Antoni Gaudi designed that they started building in 1882 and are still working on.

Even incomplete it is pretty spectacular. They are currently estimating to complete it by 2026, so I told Yanmei we should come back in 15 years or so and see it again. The final design is for 18 spires, of which currently only 8 are complete, the 4 you see above and 4 similar on the opposite side that can't be see from this steep angle. Another 4 similar are planned, and then six central taller spires representing Mary, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Jesus, with the Jesus spire being the tallest.

Inside, columns look like trees. You can see the unfinished white windows in the upper part where they are still adding stained glass
The light coming through the stained glass was spectacular

 

-David