Eliot's Travels

We arrived at the Girona airport (northeast of Barcelona) and took the Barcelona Bus to the main bus station in Barcelona. There we picked up a tourist map and guidebook. The weather was very nice, so we decided to walk to our hotel. We passed by the Arc de Triomf, built as the ceremonial entrance to the 1888 Universal Exhibition. The interesting lamposts and boulevard of the Passeig de Luis Companys served as a nice introduction to the city.

We walked along narrow passage ways filled with people, cars, and pigeons toward our hotel. The streets were just starting to clear out for the afternoon shutdown (~1-4). Along the way, we saw this archeological dig in the middle of the city. The Romans moved their regional capitol from Tarraco to Barcino in the 3rd century AD. It seems that Roman ruins are often discovered during large bulding and excavation projects.

Just a short distance from the hotel, this building has an interesting facade. The architecture is quite different from the brick buildings and tiled roofs of Delft. Barcelona definitely is a big city. In many ways, it looked and felt like Paris - lots of people, shopping, traffic, tall buildings, iron work, museums, culture, art.

posted by Whitney @ 7:44 AM