Barcelona (Day 3, March 4) : Red Line

Salam..

I am back with the next installment of our Catalan city tour.. Day 3 started earlier for us.. For some reason, despite the busy second day and, quite honestly, tiring, my sleep was broken at least three times during the night.. Maybe the excitement of enjoying my vacation in Spain has sunk in and revving my engines inside..

Dawn at Placa de Catalunya

The morning started off with our breakfast at La Poma again, and again Ina's hope to have half-boiled egg was stunted by the hard-boiled egg at the crack of the first egg she took.. Sigh.. After breakfast, we headed towards our starting point Placa de Catalunya, but this time from the opposite side of the park, to board the Red Line roof-top bus.. The morning was perfect, with the sun coming out and inviting everybody's shade to make appearance..

Gaudi

Our first stop was the three buildings by the great Gaudi, the Manzana de la Discordia (Block of Discord) - Casa Lleo Morera, Casa Amatller and Casa Batllo.. It was Casa Batllo that was open to visitors and we made no delay to be among the first to be awed and astonished by Gaudi's magnificent work.. Subhanallah, true genius was the man, gifted and granted with a sense of beauty unfamiliar to mankind.. The ocean-based building represents a majestic feature of how nature can be reanimated in the form of a structural build..

Ina in front Casa Batllo

Casa Batllo rooftop

After Casa Batllo, we went to Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family).. This is another of Gaudi's work.. He started this project at the age of 40, but unfortunately never made it to see the completion.. In fact, even until today, this cathedral is still incomplete! A worker of the cathedral once asked Gaudi when will the cathedral be finished.. Gaudi answered, "Don't you worry, my friend.. My client is not in any hurry.. God has all the time in the world.." Well, talk about working without datelines! No wonder even to this day, after more than 100 years later, the cathedral is still surrounded by cranes and scaffolding! We did not explore the inside of the cathedral as we were informed that a portion of the tickets sold will be donated to the fund for the cathedral's building..

From there, we marched towards Parc Guell, a failed garden-city attempt.. Eusebi Guell had viewed garden-cities in London and had an ambition to bring the idea to Barcelona.. However, he was snubbed by the wealthy locals and the initial plan of an estate with 60 houses with recreational areas collapsed even under the great hands of Gaudi.. The estate was later bought by the city and turned into a tourist attraction.. Despite the 'failure', Gaudi still managed to put lively ideas into the construction of the estate and his artistic work was again materialised in Parc Guell..

Parc Guell roof

After our visit to Parc Guell, we boarded the bus again and continued our journey to our next destination, Tibidabo.. Tibidabo is the name of the mountain at the north side of Barcelona and at the top lies the Parc d'Atraccions.. We stopped at the foot of Mount Tibidabo and took a bus up the hill to Placa del Doctor Andreu, from which we took a funicular (cable car) to the top.. Our initial hope was to hike the hill on the Tramvia Blau, but unfortunate for us the tram was not in service at this time of the year, hence the reason taking the bus.. At the top, again our hopes were crushed when we were told that the Parc d'Atraccion was closed, plus the weather then turned sour with rain pouring down.. The temperature dropped and it was worse at the top of the mountain.. We didn't spend long up there and headed back to the foot of the hill and had our lunch before taking another ride towards Camp Nou..

Funicular up Mount Tibidabo

Barca! Barca! Barca!

We passed CosmoCaixa, Sarria, Monestir de Pedralbes and Palau Reial-Pavellons Guell before reaching the home ground of Barcelona FC.. Needless to say, the visit to Camp Nou was a memorable one.. We took the stadium and museum tour, which started off with a 3-D welcoming movie.. We explored the stadium to the extend that we were in the dressing room, by the pitchside, in the dugout, inside the VIP box, inside the commentary box and in the conference room! Later, we feasted on the extravagant history of Barcelona FC in the museum.. Before we left, we got ourselves some souvenirs from the megastore beside the stadium..

Camp Nou : Mes Que Un Club (More Than Just A Club)

Our journey on the Red Line finished when we took the bus and ended our journey back at Placa de Catalunya around 7pm.. We headed back to our hotel and I showered before going out again for dinner at Rajah Restaurant, just at a corner off the main street La Ramblas.. We were quite surprised to find that this restaurant did serve halal food! Mixed grill and parathas were our servings for the night.. We ended our day around 8pm with some doughnut and coffee..

The Red Line was yet another great adventure and experience around Barcelona city.. Tomorrow is another day for us to visit the last few places and maybe pack some souvenirs.. We will keep you updated with our journey.. Adeu-siau!

Salam..