Hop On Hop Off

We checked out of our hotel in the morning and stored our luggage with the front desk for the day. We bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus so we could see some of the most popular sights of Barcelona.

There are three lines of the buses that travel to different parts of the city.

If you have the time, there are more than enough sights to spend the entire day seeing.

We chose the line that would take us to La Sagrada Familia, which is probably Barcelona’s most famous landmark.

It is a church designed by Goudi and was the major work of his life. Traces of his work scatter the city, but this is by far his largest and most well known.

Upon his death in 1926, the city took over the construction of the massive church and is still in the process of completing it so many years later. I don’t think pictures can accurately capture the size and complex details covering every inch of the church.

We were given headsets on the bus and while we traveled from one destination to the next could learn the background and information on each sight. Our next stop was Park Guell, a garden community also designed by Goudi.

His distinct style makes it stand out from the surrounding areas.

There were stairs leading to the top of the building, where in the previous picture you see people standing above the pillars. Up here there were vendors and even a "headless" street performer.

The architecture was really neat. I kind of felt like I was in a storybook!

There were mosaic designs all over the park, on the buildings, signs, and even this giant lizard!

The residential area never took off and it was later given to the city as a public park.

We saw a few more sights along the way, including this cool dragon gate and the soccer (or "football") stadium.

The tour led us through the financial district, past the University of Barcelona, and we hopped off the bus to see the Museum of Contemporary Art. It wasn’t right by the stop and we wandered around for awhile, but even with a map were never able to actually locate this place. We gave up and decided to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and go to the port.