Maddie’s European Travel Diaries: Barcelona Day 4

Last day in Barcelona :( Today was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of cool architecture! We started our day with the amazing hotel breakfast per usual. At 9:30 we started our walk to two Gaudí buildings, Casa Batilló:

and Casa Milá:

These are both super neat; Casa Batilló was designed in competition with a few other popular architects from the modernist time period, and ultimately Gaudí’s became the most famous. Our tour guide Mario did a great job of thoroughly explaining the history of the architecture, which was very informative and fascinating. After our walking tour of the city, we took the subway!!! This was my first public transportation experience and it was great, no issues and I did not feel unsafe. We rode the metro to Las Ramblas then down to the Mediterranean, where we boarded a ferry and took an hour cruise around the coastline of Barcelona. It was so pretty to see the city from the water and a nice relaxing boat ride.

After this, we had free time for lunch and got pizza and gelato at this cute restaurant, Gallo Nero. We headed back to the hotel around 3:15, changed really quick, then went back to the lobby to meet for our tour of La Sagrada Familia! We also took the subway to this tour. We were part of the group that had a physical guide, who gave us headsets so we could hear him in the crowded basilica. We learned all about the history of the church and the reasoning behind architectural choices made by Gaudí and other architects. The stained glass, geometric designs, and columns resembling trees and other natural figures were breathtaking. From the church, we took the metro again to dinner. We had potatoes, a mushroom dish, bruschetta, and other tapas, with a brownie sundae for dessert. After that, we took one last walk down Las Ramblas and headed back to our hotel to take a quick siesta before our 3am wakeup for our flight. See you in Florence mañana!