Leaving Barcelona

Four weeks and 1800 photos later and we're about to hand back the keys to our rented apartment here in Barcelona and jet off back to sunny (or not so, as the case will probably be) England. We've had a thoroughly excellent time although both my wife and I are feeling that it's high time we were back to our homeland, looking forward to our exciting move to our new flat in a couple of days time and getting on with 'real life' again. 

Over the last four weeks we've seen a fair bit of what Barcelona has to offer, delighting in all the Gaudí buildings, walking round several museums and exhibitions, and throwing in a decent number of beach trips for me too. 

As a little taster of the fun times and sights we've had and seen, peruse the following photographs, but don't worry, I shan't put them all up!?

Roman ruins of Barcino

La Pedrera

The Gràcia Festival

Monastery of Pedralbes

Amazing dolphin show at Barcelona zoo

Maze in the Jardins del Laberint d'Horta

Nova Icaria beach

The Sagrada Família

Park Güell

We found Gaudí!

Yummy tapas and sangria

The 'Magic Fountain'

All in all, a wonderful stay in this city and I've almost no doubt that at some point in the future we'll visit again.  

Buying art in Barcelona

For the past week and a half, my wife and I have been in Barcelona as the Spanish part of her year abroad. For the first week we also had my 17 year old sister with me, to give her a holiday! All in all, we'll be in this city for 4 weeks (!), so have got plenty of time for sight-seeing, beaching and also some breathing space for just being. 

So far, we've managed to see quite a lot, although we also have plenty planned for the coming two and a half weeks. 

Last Friday, whilst at the Park Güell, we walked past a man selling art, and happened to like one of the paintings he had placed on the top of his pile. For 10€, we thought it a bargain, and picked it up. Yay! :)

So, here's the painting we bought, which is currently resting up against a window in our rented apartment:

Of course this now means we'll have to add yet another frame to our 'to buy' list, bringing the total up to five now, I think!