Now that I’m settled in Virginia, I’m finally getting the chance to go through, catalogue, and share all my pictures from our trip to Europe. I’m planning, bit by bit, to take you on little tours of the amazing cities we were able to visit, and show you some of the sights we saw. I’m starting with one of my favorites, and one of the first places we explored in Barcelona. It’s a fabulous garden simply known as “the city garden” or “the city park.” Parque de la Ciudadela in Catalan.
Let’s start with La Cascada / The Waterfall. You come through the gardens on one of the many miles of walking/jogging paths and all of a sudden, this enormous structure looms out of the foliage. It looks a little like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. The structure is part of an enormous waterfall, surrounded by carved statues of the Greek and Roman pantheon, with Aphrodite in her seashell at the top of the falls and a golden statue of Apollo on top. It was built comparatively recently {1881} for the Universal Exhibition held in Barcelona – and therein you find one of the underlying patterns of the city. Barcelona’s layout was relatively simple until they hosted three events: the Universal Exhibition of 1888, the 1929 International Exposition, and the 1992 Olympics. A huge amount of the city was constructed specifically for these events.
The zoo is another huge attraction at the city garden. We didn’t have a chance to go visit it, unfortunately, but we did poke around outside – and we heard plenty of monkeys yelling at the visiting crowds from all throughout the park!
There’s a very large arboretum in the park that’s free and open to the public. While it’s specifically meant to house certain display species, most of the larger plants in the park are marked with tags showing their names and a little information on them, so the entire park is itself a huge botanical display.
Outside the park, you come to a huge plaza where Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf stands. It’s no relation to the ones in Paris or in Rome, even though it was built in that style. It was built for the 1888 Exhibition. One of the things we never figured out was how there came to be so many parrots in the plaza {seriously, there were dozens of little green parrots}, and what the spray painted gaming track there was for. We’re guessing it was either for the many roller-blading and skateboarders who frequent the plaza, or someone just got creative. Who knows? We’d like to come back and find out though!
Well, that’s a first look at the grand city of Barcelona! Stay tuned for more!
KCS
If you want more posts on Barcelona:
Hola from Barcelona | The City Garden | The Waterfront (coming soon!) | The Gothic Quarter (coming soon!) | Gaudi’s Architecture (coming soon!) | The Funicular Railway and Montjuic (coming soon!)
