Visiting Barcelona - Day 1

I've been to the Barcelona area for several times now, but never visited Barcelona itself up till now. Last week I was finally able to pay the city a visit. My mother walked the Camino de Santiago the last couple weeks and we decided to meet up in Barcelona and fly back together from there.

_{Sector Naval de Catalunya - Sony SEL35F28Z @ f/8}

So while she took the train to Barcelona, my brother, his girlfriend and I booked a flight for last Saturday early in the morning for a three day stay - enough time to relax and visit some of the famous places there.

_{Jardins de Rubió i Lluch - Sony SEL35F28Z @ f/8}

We arrived at around 9:00 in the morning and took a taxi to the city center. The first thing you notice is how green the city is. Every street is full of trees and even the narrowest alley is decorated with flowers and plants.
After getting some coffee and dropping off our luggage at the appartment we rented, we first headed towards La Rambla. We went through the "Jardins de Rubió i Lluch" - a garden inside a former hospital.

A few minutes later we arrived at La Rambla, and although it was a Saturday it was not as crowded as we expected. Luckily it was not very hot on that day so we had a look at the various shops and then stopped at a bar for drinks and tapas.

_{Ok there were in fact more people than you can see in this 25 sec exposure - La Rambla - Voigtlaender 15mm @ f/16}

After a quick stop at the apartment (it was a long day after all), our last destination for the day was Parc Güell. We took the metro - a great way to get around in the city - and walked through the city to enter the park from the west side. We didn't have that much time, but still plenty enough to walk around the area - definitely a must-see.

_{Parc Güell - Sony SEL35F28Z @ f/8}