Barcelona Part 2: Sightseeing

Once I actually found the will to drag myself away from the fabulous hotel, it was off to see the city. I'm learning that there are both drawbacks and advantages when it comes to traveling for business. In the case of sightseeing, we had a personal tour guide and van to take us around. Not too shabby. Speaking to that note (and to my previous post about the fabulous hotel), let me just say how incredibly fortunate and grateful I am to even have had this opportunity to travel and to have stayed in such amazing accommodations. If there's one thing I know about life, it's that everything can be pulled out from under you at any instant, and I'm well aware of how lucky I am to have been afforded this visit (business or not!)

But you probably want to see pictures.

La Sagrada Familia was absolutely amazing.

As was Park Guell...

The views from Montjuic were spectacular.

 

My co-worker and I spent our last morning in town checking out La Rambla in all its craziness. I particularly liked the live statues (wish the lighting wasn't so bad in my pictures).

Wouldn't see a shop like this all open and welcoming in the prudish USA :)

The St. Josef Market was fun to mill around. So many bright colors and items/foods to see. I can't imagine what it smelled like later in the day, though, as the temperatures rose and more people crowded in. The back of the market smelled REALLY fishy with all of the seafood stands at 11am.

Fun shaped bottles of sangria inside the St. Josef Market:

Some of the freshest fruit I've ever seen:

SUGAR!

Best sign ever.

We strolled around some more to take in the general architecture and vibe of the city. I was amazed by how many motorcyclists and moped riders there were.

And then, of course, there was the beach. I only made it down to the water on my very last evening in Barcelona (I opted to work out instead of spend time at the beach during my one afternoon off...don't know if I should congratulate or punish myself for that!) The beach by our hotel was partially a nude beach and, as my boss put it, there was a lot of bad naked going on out there.

As we walked to dinner one evening, we noticed a group of 30-something guys rinsing off in the public shower/rinse area. They were all laughing hysterically at the one in the group who had his swim trunks around his ankles as he shook his junk in the shower water, laughing along with them. Good times. Hope he enjoyed himself and managed to get all of the sand out. And then there was the woman wearing nothing else but a G-string (which was mostly hidden by her protruding stomach) who I managed to frame out of this picture I took of myself as proof that I did indeed set foot next to the Mediterranean Sea.

(G-string lady was literally just off to the right of this photo)

If I haven't lost you in this uber-long post, I'm surprised :)

Up next is Part 3: What I Wore