today was my first day in Barcelona and i didn’t have anything planned (how unlike me), although there were a couple of places that i wanted to visit.

since this was a day of leisure, i slept in, had breakfast, then stopped by the hotel desk to grab a map or two and figure out how to get where i wanted to go. obviously my, “full day” was in reality, a half day.

the metro system was pretty easy to navigate, like most metro/train maps, you find the name, number and/or color line you want to take, then look at the last stop to determine the correct direction to go. it could get dicey if there are multiple transfers involved, thankfully today there was only one.

the first destination was the Cathedral of Barcelona.

the church was named after Barcelona’s co-patron saint Eulalia and was built in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.

Eulalia was a 13 year old Roman Catholic virgin (of course) who was martyred in Barcelona during the persecution of Christians in the reign of emperor Diocletian. One story says that she was exposed naked in the public square and a miraculous snowfall in mid-spring covered her nudity. The enraged Romans put her into a barrel with knives stuck into it and rolled it down a street (according to tradition, the one now called Baixada de Santa Eulàlia). The body of Saint Eulalia is entombed in the cathedral’s crypt.

after a visit to the cathedral, i wandered around the Gothic area and my next site was the Palau de la Música Catalana.

this is a concert hall, built between 1905 and 1908 and it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.

it’s so beautiful…..mosaics, stained glass and sculpture make up the surroundings and i was there in time to hear the organ being played as well, such a treat.

i meandered back up La Ramblas (considered the most well known street in central Barcelona) to the metro station and headed back to the hotel.

that was it for today. tomorrow, more sites!