Another day in Barcelona!

The next day Jane and I had another walk planned in the Eixample district. This district is newer part of the city and is the same district that we were staying in. 

A passage through some housing area. 

A little cut through of a nearby residential area brought us to this awesome Water Tower Garden. I guess later in the summer it turns into a sort of temporary beach and a lot of families in the neighborhood hang out here a lot. 

Next stop on our walk took us to the Church of the Holy Conception. Unfortunately it was closed and we weren't able to go inside. It used to be in Old City but was moved once Barcelona began to expand. 

There were a few other sights along the way and while fun to walk by the pictures aren't that cool so we're skipping ahead to the Block of Discord.

This block features three buildings by three Modernista architects including Gaudi. 

Casa Batllo (Antoni Gaudi)

You can take tours of the buildings but unless you reserved ahead of time there are typically long lines. It's easy to reserve but since it was just me with Jane I didn't know how easy it would be to make a specific time and she probably wouldn't have lasted long. Plus we had the stroller and a lot of Barcelona I found to not be stroller friendly. 

Casa Batllo

It would have been really cool to go inside but it was still fun looking at the details and differences in style between each building. 

Casa Amatller (Josep Puig i Cadafaich)

Casa Amatller

Casa Lleo Morera (Lluis Domenech i Montaner)

Not far from the Block of Discord was another beautiful building, La Pedrera (a.k.a. Casa Mila) done by Gaudi. It was actually his last major work before he became focused on Sagrada Familia. 

You can take a tour of this house's interior and go to the rooftop but opted out that afternoon.  I wanted to go and we thought about going later in the week but it didn't end up happening. 

I did get to go into the atrium for a bit though and peek up. Just looking at the exterior is pretty awesome though. After I lost Jane's hat and we spent some time back tracking in hopes of finding it we finally went back to our hotel to cool off, eat, and nap. 

That evening Kevin had originally planned to head out on another excursion with conference folks to a winery. Based on how late we kept Jane out on the Sagrada Familia tour the night before I decided to skip that event. Kevin surprised me though and decided to skip that evening. We were pretty excited to have him around that evening and decided it would be a good night to go and do laundry. The laundromat was a little ways away so we managed to do a little sight seeing on our walk there. 

Sant Pere de les Puelles

Came across this cook Benedictine monastery and decided to take a quick peek. 

I loved seeing all the Romanesque and Gothic styles throughout the city. 

We made it to the laundromat and Jane had fun walking around while we started the loads. While we were waiting we grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant. Kevin just went over to get our stuff when it was done drying. 

Laundry time!

After dinner we started our walk back. I wanted to show Kevin a few things that I'd seen on my walk so we went back by the Cathedral of Barcelona. 

It was late and the church was closed but Kevin enjoyed looking around. That church is just amazing!

Near the church was the Monument to the Martyrs of Independence. 

It was so fun having Kevin around to share some of the beautiful architecture with. 

Heading back to our hotel we stopped by the Palace of Catalan Music. I'd walked by before during the day but didn't go inside. I thought it was more beautiful at night all lit up. 

This concert hall was built in 1908 and was absolutely beautiful. 

Again, a tour would have allowed us to see more of the interior but we were able to walk in and peek around a little bit around the entrance. 

Such a beautiful building. 

Back at the hotel it was bath night for Jane. Our first hotel, although amazing, had no bathtub so a sink bath it was. 

We then had a pretty chill evening in our room watching a YouTube movie while Jane slept. We'll have to come back to Barcelona someday without kids if we are going to experience any of the nightlife which I hear is pretty fun.