This
was our last day in Barcelona and we had to be out of the hotel
by 1200. We loaded our junk into the rental car and then
had a very white-knuckle drive through the crowded streets of
Barcelona and up the hillside to the cathedral at Tibidabo on
the mountain to the west of Barcelona. After seeing
Tibidabo, we descended the mountain and took the highway north
to La Bisbal. Along the way we stopped at a Basque
restaurant for lunch before heading to our final destination for
the day which was the Castell D'Emporda.
The photos below are what we saw.
Our
final view of Plaza Catalunya. Note all the scooters
parked on the street.
This
morning, like every morning, there were teams of city workers
power washing the plaza to rid them of the pigeon droppings.
We wound
our way through the narrow and crowded city streets to the path
up the mountain to Tibidabo. At the top, we found this
nice hotel with an awesome view of the valley.
To the
northwest we could see other cities in the distance.
To the
east, we could see the harbor at Barcelona.
We could
see the ships in the harbor as well as a big chunk of downtown.
Barcelona
is a sprawling city and extends far to the north and south along
the coast.
Through
the trees we could see Sagrada Familia as well as the other
major landmark which we referred to as "the suppository".
Only
after I uploaded and inspected photos did I notice these odd
structures. I am guessing that they are a power plant.
This is
a rather large panorama of the Barcelona coastline as seen from
Tibidabo. The image is about 56mb, so it will likely take
awhile to load. To see the full-size panorama, click on
the image. When the image loads, you can click on the
image again to be able to zoom and pan within the full size
image. When done, use the "back" button in the browser to
return to this page.
From the
window of our hotel, we could see that there was a large church
on Tibidabo. It is bigger than it seemed.
We were
somewhat pressed for time so we did not go inside, so we never
got the full story on the cathedral.
Oddly,
right next to the cathedral is an amusement park with various
rides.
Both
Steve and I thought about the oddity of juxtaposing a church
with merry go round.
To the
north was another structure, but it did not appear to be
associated with either the church or the amusement park.
We discovered that there were also private residences on
Tibidabo.
To the
south of the church is this huge communication tower that was
built to support the Olympics held in Barcelona in 2009.
We left
Tibidabo and drove north toward the French border to get to our
hotel in La Bisbal. Kathleen found a castle that we could
stay in and it was nicer than I could have imagined. We
had the "tower room" and the photo above shows the view from our
window looking to the northwest. The snow-capped Pyrenees
Mountains are in the distance. I found out the history of the
place based on material provided by the hotel as follows:
The castle and grounds had been part of the Margarit family for more than 500 years. "According to the legend, Duke Bernat Margarit of Emporda was called by Richard the Lionheart for the Third Crusade in 1180. After the conquest of Akka, Bernat returned to Castell d'Emporda in 1191. It was here where his "best friend", marquis Jaume Farrer, told him about his wife's affair. At that time, there were two punishments for such acts: being bricked with an air hole or bricked without an air hole. Bernat chose the latter punishment for his wife's infidelity. Years later, he found out that Jaume himself had been the one who had tried to seduce Beatrice, but that she had rejected him. Bernat carved 'God Forgive Me' on a wall and died soon thereafter. Farrer was locked in a barrel and thrown into the Aro river."
Below
our window was the pool and terrace bar.
To the
west was a small stream and more fields.
To the
south we could see the castle's olive garden and the dining
terrace.
I had to
re-park the car after checking in, so I took the camera.
This is the dining terrace.
Very nice rustic
stone work surrounds the glass entry way.
The sunset was nice,
but lacking structure. Usually, some form of dust is
needed for a really nice sunset and the winds had thankfully
been calm. Later we ate in the house restaurant called "Drac"
and it was excellent.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2017, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.