Barcelona Day 2: Montjuic

The next day we headed up to Montjuic, a mountain in the southwest part of the city. The bus dropped us off near the Olympic Stadium, built for the 1936 Olympics (which was moved to Berlin because of the Spanish Civil War) but used in the 1992 Olympics. We were able to walk around the stadium, see where the torch was lit, and then roam the grounds, imagining what it was like filled with athletes (and also thinking about what Bob Costas would have had to say about it). There were also nice views of the city of Barcelona from the Olympic park. 

Olympic Park

Other highlights of Montjuic include a stunning, huge building that now houses the Museum of Catalonian Art, and lots of gardens and fountains. There is one very large fountain, the Font Magica, which does water shows in the evenings, but that’s just during the summer, sadly, so we didn’t get to see it in its prime. We wandered throughout the park for several hours, visiting some smaller art exhibits, and enjoying the perfect weather. We also finally sampled Spanish churros, which don’t have cinammon (lame) but do have the same perfect crunchy yet soft consistency churros are meant to have. Delicious.

Museum of Catalonian Art

Font Magica (sadly without water)

Looking down on Placa Espanya from the Museum

It took us forever to climb up to the castle. The road we followed kept winding and winding, ascending and ascending, until we finally reached the highest point of the mountain. While the castle itself was a little disappointing (it was super lame actually) the views from the top were stunning. On one side was the sea, with the sun getting ready to set, and the other side the entire city of Barcelona. We were able to see from this view just how huge and dense the city is. Looking down we could see basically nonstop buildings, with very little green breaking up the sand-colored blurr. Barcelona is surrounded by a series of hills, so we could see the hills on the other side looking across, which also made for a lovely picture. Since it was so sunny up there we decided to sit and read for a bit before heading back down to the city for dinner.

View of the harbor from atop the castle

The kid who took this picture for us was less than enthused.

Such a dense city!

Kind of a lame looking castle, sadly.