David and Goliath Sculpture

We left Barcelona Zoo and headed towards the beach but spotted the David and Goliath sculpture on the way. Designed by Antoni Llena for the 1992 Olympics, it ran into a few problems and was inaugurated in December 1992, after the Olympic athletes had long packed up their PE kits and left for home.

Barcelona Zoo

Barcelona Zoo is in the Parc de la Ciutadella and it cost us 19.90 euros each to go in, making it the most expensive of the locations we visited in the city. We felt it was worth it.



The zoo is quite small and compact but well laid out. There is a modest mix of animals. We stayed there for about 2-3 hours.













Watch out for the peacocks wandering around the paths.

Breakfast at La Pubilla

Thursday in Barcelona last week started with breakfast, naturally. We found a cafe called La Pubilla on Avinguda Meridiana on the way to the zoo. So we ate there, sitting at a table in the street.



Spanish omelette. Very nice. The tea pot however was a bit of a challenge when pouring it. Most of my tea ended up on the table instead of the cup!

Set de Gotic - toilets and tapas

I'm not sure which to recommend more highly - the toilets or the tapas at Set de Gotic, a restaurant on Carrer Montsio. We found it in the old city after finishing our walking tour of Gaudi buildings. I don't think I've photographed toilets before but visiting them was quite a surprise. Incredibly ornate tiling throughout. I had to whip out the camera whilst in the loo.





If you didn't need to spend a penny, enjoy the tapas instead.

Block of Discord

After leaving the Cafe de la Pedrera, we headed for a set of Modernista buildings called the Mancana de la Discordia, the Block of Discord. The buildings are said to be so contrasting that they are in an argument with each other. I can imagine back in the UK, council planning officers having a hernia at the prospect of such buildings going up in what most people would describe as a posh area! At the start of the 20th century in Spain, what were presumably much more drab buildings were converted into apartments by Gaudi, Lluis Domenech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch. Instead of being visited by angry planning officers, they rapidly became an accepted part of the built landscape. The photo above is of the Casa Lleo Morera with its notable ornate tower on its roof.



The Casa Battlo by Gaudi is my favourite of the three. The roof looks like the curved back of a fish.



And finally the Casa Amatller.

La Pedrera

The next port of call for us after seeing the statue honouring Narcis Monturiol was La Pedrera, another of Antoni Gaudi's Barcelona buildings. It's official name is Casa Mila but is better known by La Pedrera, which means stone quarry, which its facade resembles. It was built between 1906 and 1912. We did not go into the main building, which houses a cultural centre. We did however sample yet another coffee in Cafe de la Pedrera, on the ground floor.







I guess this was the poshest of the places we visited on this bargain holiday. The ceiling in particular is worthy of note. Lots of waves and ripples, very Gaudi.

Submarine Sculpture in honor of inventor Narcis Monturiol

We stumbled across this sculpture whilst walking to Pedrera. It is in honor of Narcis Monturiol, the visionary Catalan inventor of a submarine launched in 1859. When it was destroyed in a collision, he invented a bigger one, this time powered by an internal combustion engine. Sadly for him, he was not able to go into mass production and sell submarines. He died a broken man. He is however something of a hero to the Catalans.