The first two days of my stay in Barcelona have been incredible. I've met a lot of
fun people, seen some beautiful sights and taken part in some exciting
activities. I would go as far to say it's been
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| Sally Gunnall with her gold medal |
I’ll start chronologically as our easyJet plane touched down at the airport at
around 2pm on Monday. We were whizzed straight off to Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, aka the Olympic stadium,
where we were able to take some stunning photographs and have a look around the
museum. Listening to some guest speakers afterwards, including athlete Sally
Gunnell – who won a gold medal in the 400 m hurdles at the Barcelona Olympics – I began to feel more
drawn towards the fact that I was born in the same year that the city held the
Games. I learned that since 1992, Barcelona has been able to attract far more
tourists because of the many new buildings and facilities constructed to
accommodate it. It was remarkable how a sporting event had resulted in
massive changes to the city, and all in the space of my lifetime!
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| Ready to go! |
We were well and truly thrown in at the deep end later on
with a bike ride around the streets of Barcelona. It might not sound too daunting,
but I reckon cycling between two (moving!) lanes of traffic within the first few
minutes was precisely that! To anyone considering a bike tour of the city, make sure you either know where you’re going or you’re with someone who does – the roads are insane!
Having a fair bit of cycling experience is certainly recommended too; I used to
complain when my parents dragged us around Wales on bike rides, yet I was silently
thanking them as I managed to keep my cool alongside the cars. It was
great fun though, particularly the quieter roads and cycle paths, and made for
a brilliantly unique way of seeing the city.
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| The beautiful Camp Nou |
I reverted back to the trusty tour bus for my next day of
sightseeing and headed straight for Camp Nou. I’ve had tours of football
stadiums before and there’s always been a guide leading us around, but FC
Barcelona is such a massive club that they operate more like one big museum,
marking out a route to follow and offering you a virtual guide while allowing
you to wander round at your own pace. There are a lot of interactive displays
showing images and videos, including several opportunities to watch countless
amazing goals – I could have stayed there and watched them all day! The stadium
itself is breathtaking and I only wish my visit had coincided with a matchday. If
you like football and find yourself in Barcelona, you simply cannot leave
without sampling the Camp Nou Experience.
As a first-timer in Barcelona, (a first-timer in Spain
itself, actually – I’m not counting Tenerife!) I wanted to make sure I crammed
in as many sights as possible. I was delighted to tick off the Sagrada Familia
and Park Güell on my list of ‘Places I Must Visit Before I Die.’ I also stuck
to my promise of touring my Fleetwood Town cap around the city, as these photos
demonstrate. Gaudi’s mosaic lizard is now a fully-fledged member of the Cod
Army!
I’ve left a little bit of time aside this morning to
properly investigate the beach and see if I can find some water sports, then it’s
off to the airport to fly home! It had better be as warm in England as I’ve
been hearing about when I arrive back…
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