DAY 12, MAY 17, Tuesday:

Checked out, drove down to Barcelona airport car rental, returned the car. Their shuttle dropped us at Terminal 2 and we took the airport shuttle [ticket 6 euro each] to Placa de Catalunya. walked 300 m to our hotel. Checked in. Booked Casa Batllo for 1.30 and Casa Mila for 3.30 online. walked to both and enjoyed our visit to the famous Gaudi treasures.

STAY: APT Super Balmes, Placa de Catalunya

Checked out of Montserrat hotel, , drove down to Barcelona airport car rental, returned the car

TRANSPORT FROM BARCELONA AIRPORT TO PLAZA CATALUNYA

Taxi is 30-35 euros, depending on traffic and whims of the driver.

AEROBUS

We took the Aerobus, fast and convenient.

The Aerobus is a fast (35 minutes) and economical (5.90€) shuttle bus that connects Barcelona - El Prat airport (Terminals 1 and 2) with the city centre of Barcelona (Place de Catalunya). The route includes 3 stops at the strategic points of Barcelona: Pl Espanya, Gran Via-Urgell, Pl Universitat.

Aerobús provides express service between Barcelona Airport and several locations around the city centre. Frequency 07:15 to 22:30 every 5 min

Buses are blue and marked as “Aerobús”.

There are two lines: A1 (for Terminal 1) and A2 (for Terminal 2)

Departures from Terminal 1 and Plaça Catalunya operate 24/7, 365 days of the year.

This is our shuttle from the car rental. We asked to be dropped at Terminal 1. There was a line for the Aerobus. We joined it. Son went to buy the tickets from the machine as some one told us we had to. Actually, we could have just bought from the guy checking at the bus steps. He accepted even credit cards.

APT Super Balmes, Placa de Catalunya

It was a 300 m walk to our apt. [instructions here Take the Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya, then you must walk ACROSS Plaza Catalunya to the upper corner on the opposite side. Continue down the street RONDA UNIVERSITAT one block to the corner of BALMES. You will have arrived. The door to the building sits between The cafe "LA CHIKA" and The restaurant "MACCHINA". There is a small sign on the door that says APARTMENTS SUPER BALMES]

The location was great. Plaza Catalunya is 300 m away, which is where the airport shuttle drops off and picks up passengers for €6 per person, and comes every 5 minutes. There’s also a metro station in Plaza Catalunya. There’s another metro station at Universitat which is 100 m from the hotel. carrefour grocery store is about a 500m walk from the hotel. Very well-stocked supermarket Carrefour. The kitchen in the apartment hotel was very well stocked as well. The living area and dining rooms were spacious and well furnished. The bedroom was well appointed as well with a balcony and central air conditioning.

Disliked · Despite texting the staff the previous night and from the airport car rental that morning , nobody was waiting for us downstairs. A whole hour was wasted from 11 AM to noon. We had to wait for an hour and request a couple of locals to make a call to get the agent (Christopher) to show up to check us in. At the end of our stay, we have to store our bags at the nearby locker – locker Barcelona for €14.

We booked slots online for Casa Batllo and Casa Mila

Casa Batlló [one of Gaudi masterpieces]

Casa Batllo[ 9-20.15, last entry 19.15; visit takes 1 hr. 35 euros online for basic visit plus audioguide. Plus 4 e at site]

Antoni Gaudí was a Catalan architect who has earned international acclaim. His exceptional ground-breaking genius made him the inventor of a unique, personal and incomparable architectural language that defies classification. His inspiration was nature and hence his creations have no straight lines

The local name for Casa Batllo is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as it has a visceral, skeletal organic quality. The building was built in 1877 and Gaudí remodeled the facade between 1905 and 1907.

Gaudí covered the surface of the interior courtyard with ceramic tile that goes from dark blue at the top to lighter blue and ends with white at the bottom.

The facade has broken ceramic tile in a design that starts with orange and goes into greenish blue. The first floor apartment that is open to the public has large glass windows with stained glass windows on the upper part that has designs of circles in different colors, with the color blue predominating.

Gaudí covered the surface of the interior courtyard with ceramic tile that goes from dark blue at the top to lighter blue and ends with white at the bottom.

CASA MILA

9-20.30; 1 to 1 ½ hr visit. Night tour 21-23; 24 euros for essential with free audio guide. Plus 3 e at site

We walked the 500 m from Casa Batllo to Casa Mila and were in time for our booked slot.

Gaudí built La Pedrera for the prominent Milà Family (Pere Milà was an industrialist and his wife was Roser Segimon) between 1906 and 1912. This caused a sensation at that time because everything in the building was curved and undulated. People made fun of it because they did not understand it or its abstract sculpture.

The outside walls were made of stone and reminded people of a quarry, so it was called La Pedrera (meaning stone quarry). The facade is undulating and has large windows and balconies with elaborate wrought iron railings.

INNER PATIO

There is an inner patio that acts like an air shaft for the building.

ROOF TERRACE CHIMNEYS

The roof terrace has chimney stacks that are called scare-witches, and these have very unusual shapes, and really are abstract sculptures.

TOP FLOOR

The top floor has the Gaudí Space and has an explanation of Gaudí’s work and a very good scale model of the building.

REPLICA APARTMENT

On the 4th floor is the Flat of La Pedrera, which is a replica of an apartment of Gaudí’s time, and this apartment occupies a space of 600 square meters and has household utensils, furniture, and decorative objects. This apartment shows how well-to-do people lived during that time and is very interesting. La Pedrera was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984. The building represents the zenith of Modernism