Barthelona, Barthelona, Barthelona

With only the day to spend in Barthelona, we made our way quickly from the ship to the hotel.  Thankfully it had quit raining and careful planning along with Expedia enabled us to find a reasonably prithed hotel within easy walking distance to the port and next door to the exthellent metro system that services Barthelona.

The Spanish Lisp

If you are not a language teacher then you may want to jump ahead a few paragraphs and avoid putting yourself to sleep. The “Spanish Lisp” is the Canadian equivalent of Newfie patois.  

The legend of the “Lisp” goes back to the reign of the Castilian King Ferdinand who it is said; spoke with a lisp and when was heard by others and as he was king, his pronunciation must be perfect, they copied it. Sounds believable, but alas, just another urban legend. As pronunciation varies between English speaking countries and even provinces so do variations exist between Spain and other Spanish speaking countries.  In some areas of Spain, people pronounce the letter “z” the same as English speakers pronounce the soft sound of “th”.  While in other areas of Spain, the letters “s” or “c” are pronounced with the soft “th” sound. Not a lisp but a geographic variation.

Grathias for your patience, you may wake up and resume regularly scheduled reading.

 

First on our “to do” was to head to the train station and pick up tickets for our outward bound trip to Fuengirola.  Mission accomplished, we had the rest of the day to explore.

 

 

As they always say “Any fort in a storm” and no city is really complete without a fort. Barcelona did not disappoint although its fort was not as flashy as some we have seen. 

 

 

 

 

 

It had cannons and really, isn’t that what a fort is all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Besides cannons, the fort came with magnificent views of Barcelona.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and its uber-famous architecture.

 

 

 

Barcelona is home to the revered 19^th century architect Antoni Gaudi and is littered with his buildings which even at today’s standards, are of seemingly modern design. The Sagrada Familia and the Casa Batllo are two of his most iconic designs. I do not believe that LSD had been invented yet but I get a definite 70’s flashback from his architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our day was spent wandering around and wondering at the marvelous architecture that spanned 1700 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Legend has it, that Barcelona has been inhabited since 300 BC, first by the Romans, who called it Barcin. 

 

 

 

Traces of Roman architecture still exist in the city.

At the left is an early Roman wall. 

 

Tomorrow it is onward to our home for the next month, Fuengirola, (pronounced Fwenheerola) Andalusia, Spain.