Barcelona Day 3

Barcelona Day 3: Park Güell, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà

We tried to get as much sleep as we could since we need to get up early to get to Park Guell before the crowd...we tried but didn't work well after the incident. I guess that's called post traumatic stress disorder; it'll take us time to recover. We took the metro to Lesseps (L3) stop and got there around 8:30 am. Right out of the metro, there were signs pointing to Park Guell.  It was a long walk and the last part required a walk up a steep inclining road. So glad that we bought bottles of water with us, even it was early in the morning, it was getting hot! We finally reached Park Guell just before 9 am and it was nearly empty yay! We walked in and the first thing we saw was the lizard! I have seen pictures on the web of the lizard with people crowded to get a photo of it, now looking at it with no people at all felt very different!  When I posted the photo to my Facebook, one of my friend asked "where are all the people?" LOL!

Lizard and I :)

The two what I called "gingerbread houses" :)

The mosaic tile ceiling:

Gaudi designed this area as a marketplace...too bad it was never used as a market or else it'll be a very unique outdoor market!

Then, we walked upstairs to colorful curvy mosaic benches!

I really like the pinkish color tone one with a cute cartoon face!

We saw a huge tour group coming so we hurried up and snap a few more shots.....

It was getting hot...so I couldn't imagine if I come here during the afternoon...hot and crowded!  The only downside about being here so early is that the light quality is harsh which gives dark shadow and harder to get a colorful and blue sky photo.

We walked down to the colonnaded pathway with sloped columns:

Afterwards, we started to walking back, here we can see the columns supporting the terrance:

Leaving Park Guell....five girls were sitting there waiting for their tour group:

The walk back to the metro wasn't as bad as getting to the park, easier to walk down hill!  We stopped by a  bakery and had a quick breakfast. 

Next stop: Casa Batlló!

We took the metro again to Passeig de Gràcia and Casa Batlló was a quick walk away. My first impression of Casa Batlló......colorful! I like the pastel mix of color of its exterior wall and the balconies which looked like an animal's face.

I prepaid the tickets online and the online ticket valid for any day during the one year period...very convenient!  There was almost no line at all to get in.  Once I stepped in, I was once again mesmerized by the strange unique decors. Words can not describe what they are or what they look like so just enjoy the photos :)

Hubby listening to the audio guide since we are left with one camera so we had to take turn :(

The blue tiles ranging from light blue on the bottom of the house gradually increasing to deep blue on top of the house!

Match my dress?

We walked out to a terrace and here more color mosaic tiles:

Te exterior wall..I like the flower patterns on the top!

Hum...what's the purpose of those plates sticking out?

Hard to find a sharp corner in Casa Batlló:

The dark blue tiles on the top:

Is that Gaudi?

We found our way to the strange looking and yet colorful rooftop:

The roof top of Casa Batlló compared to Palau Güell...it's more in pastel colored tone while Palau Güell is more vibrant sharp colors.

Walking back down....

More weird patterns on the ceiling...

I was only planned to visit Casa Batlló since I like the unique interior decors more than Casa Milà / La Pedrera. However, hubby convinced me that since we are so close to Casa Mila, we should go in and see then I can show photos in my blog to show the differences of the two.  Good point hubby!

We walked to Casa Milà, you can't miss it since it's a huge building:

Hubby took the camera and photo the detailed balconies...yep that's Gaudi's style - can't be that simple!

Since I was planning to go in Casa Milà, I didn't prebook tickets online so we had to wait in line. Fortunately the wait wasn't bad at all! We walked in and we were in the middle of it!

We waited in line to get in the elevator, the route started from the roof then going down which is clever! More weird looking chimneys:

The difference of Casa Milà...bigger roof and the chimneys focused on the structure, the curvy lines instead of the color.

From the rooftop, we can see Sagrada Família under construction!

After the roof top, we continued the route walking down, here we saw a model of the building:

Another differences of Casa Milà is that its a furnished apartment...here's the sewing room:

The kitchen.....our modern cook top inspired by Gaudi??

Storage room?

A green bathroom:

Dining and living room:

Office with telephone and typewriter:

The building is huge but only certain areas are opened for public visit during the day. There's a secret tour at night!

After seeing the three Gaudi's houses...my favorite is Casa Batlló for its colorful pastel exterior and strange decors interior.  Casa Milà is a furnished apartment so it wasn't as strange inside as Casa Batlló. If you have time, I'll recommend to see all three! If not, pick one and you can't go wrong :)

By now we were starving so we walked back to the metro station and hoping we could find a tapa restaurant for lunch.  We found Tapa Tapa and completely fooled by its name!  Even though there were many selections of tapas, the food was like a fast-food chain quality; over-cooked and not fresh!

Tapas were very small dishes compared to what we had in Seville and cost more. Bill was 23.75 euros.....we waited at least 15 minutes for our bill! It was getting busy but still we shouldn't be waiting for 15 minutes to get our bill!!

We headed back to the hotel to rest a bit and walked back out to Barcelona Cathedral. We walk passed by many clothing stores....but we had no mood for shopping :(

For dinner, we headed to Wok Yutaka (Carrer del Rosselló, 307), a buffet style restaurant; it's able 8 minutes walk from Casa Mila. Sorry for not taking any photos! The restaurant was clean and maybe its location, it was pretty empty.  However, the food was good for its price. Two of us the bill came to be 36.9 euros with two drinks and unlimited grills.  The buffet have both cooked and uncooked food.  Cooked food included stir-fried noodles, beef, chicken, vegetables like in a Chinese buffet.  The raw food included shrimps, squids, razor clams, ribs, vegetables, salmons which you can pick and hand over to the chief....the chief will grill those for you.  The chief pour salt and pepper as spices which came out to be pretty good. For unlimited grilled seafood for just 14.50 per person...it was a bargain!

We walked back to Casa Batlló for some night photos:

Since it's our last chance to take night photos of Barcelona (tomorrow night will be the game at Camp Nou), hubby wanted to take some more.  He was attracted by the Agbar Tower and really wanted to go to take a night photo, we decide to go. We took the metro to Glòries (L1), when we walked out of the metro station, we were under a bridge...very dark and quiet.  At that moment, I was scared but once we across the street, we saw the tower and there were a few people there taking photos so I felt a little bit relief.

Here it is the colorful Agbar Tower at night:

After a few shoots, we quickly walked to another closer entrance of the metro.  I was holding tight on my purse as we walk. The metro was very hot and train service at night slowed down so we had to wait for like 8 minutes before the next train arrived. It was a long day, the most sightseeing day since we arrived in Barcelona.  We tried to see it as much as we can after the incident but it really did impacted our itinerary!