Spain Trip: Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, and Passeig de Gracia

We only had a half day to spent on the last day in Barcelona. So this time we decided to visit some famous places, but just to see how it looks like from outside and not trying to explore more than that due to our limited time.

To make it like a flow, we took metro from Placa de Catalunya station to Diagonal station. From there, we took a walk towards Placa de Catalunya. By having this walked, we can enjoy various buildings and branded shopping store along the street.

Our first stop is at one of Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece named Casa Mila or also known as La Pedrera. This building is named after the owners, Pere Mila, and the project to create the current architecture was started in 1906.

Casa Mila

Casa Mila is one of UNESCO World Heritage site

me in front of the entrance of Casa Mila

The next building that we came accross was Casa Batllo. This also one of Gaudi's masterpiece and named after the owner of the building, Joseph Batllo. According to what I read ini Wikipedia, in the early 20th century, Passeig de Gracia was well known as a very prestigious and fashionable area. It is also an area where the prestigious family could draw attention to themselves. So no wonder Batllo and Mila put some effort to make their houses as unique as possible and hired Antoni Gaudi as the architect to make their house more picturesque.

Casa Batllo (the second building from the right)

Done with the houses, now it's time for shopping. My original plan was only to Zara, but we managed to visit other stores as well during the walk to Zara :p

huge Zara store in Passeig de Gracia

just another fountain in front of Zara store

amazed by this store since we don't have Mango Man store in Indonesia :(

Compare to the price in Indonesia, the Zara in Barcelona is only cheaper by IDR 100k- 200k, but since I already had plan for certain items, so the stuffs became more appealing to be bought in here.


XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: La Rambla, Granja Viader, and Placa de Catalunya

After spending a day full of walking around the city, we decided to spend the night around the hotel. Since our hotel located near Placa de Catalunya, so we went sightseeing La Rambla at night. La Rambla that night was packed with people.

La Rambla at night

Another view of La Rambla

Chrismas ornament on the street

Since we already had rice during the lunch, so we wanted something light for dinner. I always have an eye for dessert, so this time we're going to one of the famous place for Churros, named Granja Viader. This restaurant is established in 1870 and still crowded until now. We had to queue for a few minutes outside the restaurant until we got our seats.

Granja Viader banner

queue in front of Granja Viader

waiting to get our seats

We ordered churros, hot chocolate, flan, and milk. The churros itself taste really good, the original one is only covered with sugar. But since we also ordered hot chocolate, we could dip the churros to the chocolate. The flan taste like a light pudding with caramel sauce for me. To be honest, the chocolate is more like a cup of melted chocolate instead of milk chocolate that you usually find elsewhere. I love the taste of the foods that we ordered, but if I returned there, I will order more churros and not dip it in the hot chocolate, cause the dip made my stomach felt overwhelmed. This place is recommended for anyone who wants to taste the original churros from its original country, Spain.

Our order in Granja Viader (the churros was amazing)

You can buy milk and other food to be taken home as well

our little wefie in Granja :p 

After finishing our delicious desserts, we walked back to our hotel. Before then, we stop by at Placa de Catalunya. Basically Placa de Catalunya is a huge empty plaza, where people meet each othes or doing activities. There are some fountains at the plaza, and they gave us a show like Font Magica, but these ones in smaller size and less dramatic.

Placa de Catalunya

The fountains made the atmosphere felt beautiful

The fountains at Placa de Catalunya

Since we came there in Desember, so the Christmas ornaments were everywhere. One of them was covering the El Corte Ingles, one of the huge department store in Barcelona.

Christmas ornamen at El Corte Ingles

Finished with sightseeing, we went back to hotel and took some rest for the next day journey.



XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell

After visiting Camp Nou, we continue our trip to another famous tourist point in Barcelona, Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church designed by the famous Anthony Gaudi. The word "Sagrada Familia" means the holy family. The construction of the building was commenced in 1882 and still continue until now, which made Sagrada Familia as a never ending project.

We use metro to get to Sagrada Familia MRT station. When walked out from the station, we arrived at the back of Sagrada Familia, so we had to circling the church to get to the entrance of it. Once we entered we could see how complex the architecture of the church. My favorite part of the building was the colorful glass, the shine going through it and make the color inside the church look so beautiful.

the amazing architecture

the light looks so beautiful if you see with bare eyes

At the other side of the church, we could see the miniature of the church. Before leaving, I bought some magnet at the official souvenir shop, so I can have something to remember. Actually if we had more time in there, we can take the lift to the upper level of the church and explore the beautiful architecture of the building.

Sagrada Familia miniature

just one of the ornaments at the wall of Sagrada Familia

Before we heading to our next stop, we had some lunch at KFC across the church. Actually there are plenty restaurants around the church, so don't worry if you feel hungry when you visit the church.

Sagrada Familia view from the front of KFC

Our next stop was anothe Gaudi's masterpiece, Parc Guell. We went there using the metro and stoped at Lesseps MRT station and walk from there to the Park. From Lesseps station, we walked to Parc Guell which was about 1,6 km. During our walk, we noticed that many people put Catalan flags on their apartments' balconies.

The walk from Lesseps station to Parc Guell

Catalan flags in balconies

The walk to Parc Guell is ascending, so when arrived at the gate we almost lost our breath. The ticket to enter Parc Guell is strict to certain time only, and if you late to enter the gate, the officer won't let you in. So, please ensure you can arrived on time at the designated time when you purchased the ticket.

We entered Parc Guell from the west entrance and then we just follow the walking way to the main area, where the porter's lodge pavilions located. From the pavilion, we took the Dragon Stairway to get to the Nature Square (Placa de la Natura). I used to put the picture of this Pavilions and Barcelona city view from Nature Square at my office desktop wallpaper, so it's really nice to be able to see the real view with my own eyes.

One of the pavilion

the Dragon Stairway

the famous lizard "El Drac"

The view of Pavilions from Nature Square. If the sky is clearer, we actually could see the sea from here.

typical tourist photo at Parc Guell :p

We also took a chance to walk to the Laundry Room Portico. The view of this Portico is usually appear in instagram whenever I saw people posting about Parc Guell, so I was a bit curious about it though there's not much to see in there.

The Laundry Room Portico

When it almost twilight, we decided to go home through the south entrance. From outside the gate, I could see one of the pavilion (which became the souvenir shop) looks so beautiful from outside.

Souvenir shop pavilion from outside the gate

XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: Visiting Bacelona FC at Camp Nou

Rise and shine!

The first morning I had in Barcelona was serene, especially by looking at my room balcony that face towards Placa de Catalunya.

Placa de Catalunya in the morning

Since I still had a box of Laduree Macaron that I bought in Paris the day before, so I opened my sacred macaron and enjoy it while watching morning activities at Placa de Catalunya.

Breakfast with Laduree with Placa de Catalunya view

Agenda for that day was to visit Nou Camp. The stadium for one of the biggest football club in the world: Barcelona FC. I guess most people in Barcelona love football, even the bell boy at our hotel was also inspired to be a football player, but then he said he's not good enough so he quit.

We took a train to Palau Reial station and then took a walk from the station to the stadium. actually at when we arrived at the Avenue de Joan XXIII intersection, we turned to right instead of left, which made us had to walking around almost the full circle of the stadium just to find the entrance to the stadium. Actually if we turned to left, we only need to walk for 5 minutes to get to the entrance :(

the entrance gate

After we enter, we wanted to get into the stadium, so we need to buy the Camp Nou tour ticket. There are some ticketing machines that are available and you can use credit cards if you don't have enough cash. The price of the tour was 23 euro per person.

Camp Nou tour ticket

ticketing machine

To get to the stadium, we had to go through a tunnel and then we will arrived at the trophy room where the team display all of its trophies and uniform from the beginning of the club up until now. There are also some special display for Barcelona FC best player, with one of the is Lionel Messi, my travelling partner's favorite footbal player.

the trophy room

trophies

Champion League trophies

Lionel Messi's Golden Boot thophys

Lionel Messi's FIFA Balon d'Or awards as best player

After the trophy room, we came out to the upstairs bleacher, it's pretty crowded up there, so we just take a look for a while and continue the tour. Next is the conference room, then the locker room. I amazed that they have a little pool and massage tables in the locker room. 

the conference room

From the locker room, we walked to downstairs to the field. But before arrived at the field, I saw that they had a little chapel in there, so the football player can have some pray before the game start.

the little chapel

the stairs to the field

Then we arrived at the field, for me it looks like a regular stadium. Something amused me when I stand at the field, I saw the backup player bench. During my whole life I thought it was just a regular bench, but I was wrong, it was a super comfy bench. I guess I can stay sit there for 90 minutes without feeling stiff.

the field was covered with white cloth

super comfy bench

Another interesting part is the grass. There's a small part of the field grass that was being colored with Barcelona FC logo. And on the way out from the field we met the Camp Nou grass seller. They called it as the grass of the champion, but since it only meant grass to me, so I turned down the offer.

Logo on the grass

Grass of the Champion

view of the field from above

On the way back to the entrance building, we realized that the board that standing along the tunnel that connect between the main stadium and the entrance building are consist of the sketch of Barcelona FC players.

The entrance building also the same building for Barcelona FC official merchandise store. So we took some time to find things that looks good but still affordable, and we came out with a plastic of jacket and magnet.

It will be better if we had more time to spend there, because if we had more time, then we'll be sitting for quite a while at the stadium and enjoying the food around the stadium (it has some interesting of food stalls). Gotta go!


XOXO,
The Tourist