Barcelona Day Three

11/12-11/13

I touched the Mediterranean Sea!

Day 3

View from the top of Castell de Montjuïc 

This was the last day in Barcelona…… we still had so much to do!  We started off walking along the beach.  I got to touch the Mediterranean Sea!!  I didn’t go swimming because it was the start of the day and we had a lot of walking to do. It was nice to be at a beach again! After the beach, we took a bus to the Castell de Montjuïc.  This castle is a military fortification and is well positioned on the mountain to where you can't see the castle until you are at its doors.  We had a tour guide for this visit as well, and she was amazing!  She made jokes and had pictures to show us about the evolution of the castle and of Barcelona.  One interesting point is how the castle got its name.  There are two theories on how the mountains and castle got its name. The first, is that it is named after the roman god Jupiter, and the name just got shortened until it was Montjuïc.  This theory is supported by some artifacts that were found by archaeologists on the mountain.  The second theory is that it is called Mountain of the Jews, because archaeologist discovered a Jewish cemetery below the castle. The second theory is more accepted then the first. 

Castell de Montjuïc gardens through cellar window

As part of the tour we got to see the water reservoir that was made when the fortification was built.  The original castle was built in 30 days because, the people of Catalonia needed to defend their city from King Philip V when he was uniting all of Spain.  Then during the Spanish revolution they build the fort that we see today.  Another part of the tour was to go to the dungeon (torture rooms), however, archaeologist have found some drawings on the walls of the cells and they were closed to visitors.  We also go to go up the signaling tower to get a fantastic view of the city.  This castle use to use a mast to signal to the city of approaching ships by day, and fire by night.

After going through the different rooms in the castle Clara and I walked down the mountain to go and see Olympic stadium/park.  Since it was night we could not go into the stadium, but I got to see the track and the Olympic park leading up to the stadium.  They had fountains going with lights, it was very pretty.  We continued down the mountain because there was a fountain light show at the base of the mountain.  When we got to the fountain there was a hip hop group preforming.  They were so funny, they actually put on a 10 minute show.  The fountain show was beautiful they played English and Spanish songs.  After the show Clara and I went to find dinner at this shopping center that use to be a coliseum for bull fighting.  We found a restaurant at the very top of the mall. There we both had some sangria (you can’t go to Spain and not have sangria), and  I had this rice and Catalan sausage with vegetables dish.  Then for dessert I had coffee and chocolate tiramisu! 

Olympic Park

Today was a great day to end the trip on.  I enjoyed the whole trip and was sad to be going home.  The next day we went to the cafe we went to the first day next to the Sagrada Familia to get lunch for the bus ride.  The bus ride was not too bad, and we got back to Lyon without any issues. 

Fountain show at the Magic Fountain

Fountain show

Dinner at the coliseum