Gaudí, Miró and Mies van der Rohe

Today was our first full day in Barcelona and we managed to cover quite a lot.

We started with breakfast of apple pastries and freshly squeezed orange juice at a local café. We're thinking we might need to buy a juicer when we get back to NZ!

We went for a walk down Passeig de Gràcia which has lots of Spanish Modernist buildings, including a couple designed by Gaudí. The buildings were stunning! 

Next we wandered down a teeming La Rambla on our way to Montjuïc. This huge area of parkland offers amazing views over the city and gave us our first look at La Sagrada Familia!

We climbed the hill to the Miró museum and found out it was closing a bit over an hour later. Fortunately this turned out to be just enough time to see everything!

Next, we visited the Mies van der Rohe House which was originally created as the German entry into the Barcelona World Expo in 1929. It's amazing to think that it was designed 80 years ago as it still feels very modern today.

We also walked around the park to look out over the port of Barcelona.

Barcelona

Yesterday morning we were up early for our flight to Barcelona. The airport is quite a way out of town and has only five flights out a day. When we arrived in Barcelona it was overcast and humid but cooler than anywhere else we've been in Spain. We took the airport bus into town which was quick and stopped only two blocks from our hotel. After checking in we spent some time writing a list of the places we want to see. We're here for six nights but I'm sure time will fly by! 

We decided we'd spend our afternoon at the Picasso museum. It's located in the Barri Gòtic, which is an old part of town with narrow winding streets and lots of quirky looking shops, restaurants and bars. We'll definitely be returning for a closer look! 

The Picasso Museum was excellent. It groups his art into his different phases as an artist in chronological order. There were excellent descriptions with English translations too. This Mueseum has the full set of Las Meninas, which are studies, interpretations and interpolations of Velázquez's painting (that we saw in the Prado).

The building housing the museum was awesome too. It's set up in five conjoined medieval stone mansions. 

Granada and some shopping success!

Today we tried to have a quiet day but still managed to walk a long way! It stayed cloudy almost all day, so wasn't nearly as hot. This evening we even felt a few drops of rain for the first time since Paris, but it didn't amount to anything.

This morning we went looking in some shops. We worked our way through the streets around  Calle de los Mesones where most of the shopping is. We managed to find some interesting boutique stores away from the main streets. Ed bought a polo shirt and I bought a T-shirt in one of these stores. Most places are well into selling their winter stock which we have no interest in even looking at, let alone trying on, while the temperature remains in the 30s. 

After a rest this afternoon we headed up the same hill where we had dinner last night to check out the views in the daylight. 

We also walked a bit further up and around to a plaza which has the best view of the Alhambra. It was quite crowded with tourists but we managed to get some photos and admire the views.

This evening we've been packing up ready for our flight to Barcelona tomorrow morning. 

The Alhambra

Yesterday we spent most of our day at the Alhambra visiting the Generalife gardens, Alcazaba and the Nasrid Palaces.

We collected our tickets a day early to avoid the queues. Our session was in the afternoon, meaning we could access the grounds from 2pm and our Nasrid Palaces time was 5.30pm.

In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Then we went for a short walk around the city centre and looked in a few shops. 

Just before 1pm we had a quick lunch and then headed up the hill to the Alhambra. A queue at the main entrance was already forming so we waited in line and at 1.45pm they started letting us in nice and early which was great! We went to the Generalife gardens and summer palace first as they're furthest from the Nasrid Palaces. The gardens were pretty although they were created in the 20th century and their style is more like an English garden. The summer palace was spectacular, as were the views across Granada.

Next we visited the Alcazaba which is the towers and walls from the original citadel. It was very hot in the sun by this point and there were a lot of stairs to climb, but it was worth it for the views!

We sat in the Jardín de los Adarves (Wall walk gardens) and had a drink. Then we walked back to the entrance area to look in the gift shop. At 5.30pm went into the Nasrid Palaces which were definitely the highlight of the day! The detailing is stunning with carvings everywhere. We took our time wandering through the different areas, admiring and photographing it all. 

After the Nasrid Palaces we had enough time to visit the Partal area before walking back through the gardens to the exit. 

For dinner, we wandered up some back alleys to a lovely little plaza with restaurants on the hill above our hotel. The food and service were excellent, the ambience delightful, and the city views on the way up and back were wonderful.

Granada

Today we left Málaga and the coast, and headed inland to Granada.

We headed down to the train station early as yesterday we found a great breakfast place there when we were waiting for our train to Ronda. We've really been enjoying the freshly squeezed orange juice here. Ed has started having coffee in the mornings as it often comes included with the toast or croissant etc.

We changed trains in Antequera, which meant we had to wait an hour and a half. We caught up on reading as there was nothing at all to do at the station: no shops and the cafeteria was closed. When we arrived in Granada we walked from the station to our hotel. It's located in the Albayzin which was formerly Granada's Muslim quarter. The streets are very narrow and there are more Moorish influences here than in the other parts of Spain we've been to so far. After checking in and grabbing some lunch we decided we should collect our tickets for the Alhambra Palace, which we had pre-booked for tomorrow afternoon. The Alhambra complex is situated at the top of the hill just across from where we're staying. Luckily, it's surrounded by a huge park with established trees so the walk isn't too bad. 

We collected our ticket and had a look around the shop. Tickets are tightly controlled, with only 300 people per 30 minutes admitted to the most prized part of the complex: the Palacios Nazaries. There are parts of the complex that are free so we decided to tour these this afternoon to allow us to make the most of our time tomorrow afternoon. 

We visited the Palacio de Carlos V which is a square building with a huge circular courtyard in the centre. It houses a museum with relics from the site.

We also visited the Church of Santa Maria...

... and the Arabic steam baths.

The Alhambra grounds offer amazing views over the city of Granada. We're looking forward to seeing the views from inside tomorrow!

Ronda

Yesterday we decided we'd done everything we wanted in Málaga so we had a look into another day trip. We settled on Ronda, famous for its Puente Neuvo (new bridge). There is one train a day to Ronda from Málaga and it's a commuter train rather than a high speed train, so it took almost 2 hours to get there and the same to return. Luckily the scenery is magnificent which is one of the reasons we chose it. Here are some photos from the window of the train:

The town of Ronda is beautiful! It's relatively flat, even though it's situated in a mountainous area, and the views are stunning!

There are three bridges which gross the deep gorge between the two parts of the town: the Roman bridge, the Arabic bridge and the 'New' bridge. There is some confusion between the Roman bridge and the Arabic bridge as it seems they may have swapped names at some point. They have both been destroyed by flood waters and partially been reconstructed although still contain original features.

The new bridge isn't really new at all - it was completed in 1793. While you can see the bridge from many viewing areas along the edge of the town the best photo spots involve walking down the gorge to look up at the bridge. It's a fun walk on the way down but reasonably tiring on the way back up!

The old town of Ronda is very pretty, so we had a wander through it after our walk.