Once on the
mountain we had some decisions to make. Cactus garden, to go or not to go? We
decided why not? We weren’t expecting much but were pleasantly surprised. Who
knew that cacti could look so awesome! There were all sorts of varieties and KD
kept making sure I wouldn’t back into any prickles while I was trying to get
good shots with the camera. I can’t believe we are about to say this, but it was
breathtaking!
Onward and more
upward we began our hiking journey up to the Castle! Yup, that’s right, the
Castle. I think that I was expecting more of a fairytale castle until KD began
to explain the history of it.
This is where I
(KD) step in and tell you why this was so cool and why it was on my list of
things I absolutely had to see while here in Barcelona. The mountain was originally settled by Celts
before being conquered by the Romans, then the Visigoths, and so on. Its name comes from the Medieval Ages when
the mountain was used as a Jewish cemetery (the Christian ones were inside the city
boundaries). The castle currently on the
grounds was built in 1640 and served as a defensive fortress overlooking the
harbor. In 1842 it was even used by
Barcelona to defend against Madrid.
During the Spanish Civil War it was used by both Nationalists and
Republicans as a sight for executions, and under Francisco Franco the castle
served to imprison, torture, and execute political opposition. Culturally, it has hosted the 1929 World’s
Fair as well as the 1992 Olympics. For
those car enthusiasts, the winding roads all over the front face also was the sight
of the Montjuic circuit for Formula One racing.
Too bad they closed that down, it would have been awesome to see an F1
race! Now I’ll pass this back to Nikki
so she can tell you more about our day.
Not my kind of
fairytale, but maybe an original Grimm’s. Regardless, the castle was beautiful
and we even found another tourist couple to take our picture.
Then came our
somewhat confusing part of the trip. Other than prices, which are subject to
change anyway, our guidebooks have always agreed. Today this was not true.
Today our guidebooks told us that the Botanical Garden was in two completely
different locations. I mean, literally, across the mountain from one another. It
was about 5:30pm and we knew that either location would take us about an hour
to walk to. The garden is only open till 8pm so we really wanted to pick the
correct location. (You see, on the last Sunday of the month the Botanical
Garden is FREE! If we chose the wrong location it would mean waiting another
month to go.) Thank goodness I have a husband with pretty much the best sense
of direction ever! We found it!
We both had the
same, but slightly wrong, impressions of what a botanical garden would be. We
both thought that it would mostly be made up of colorful and wonderful smelling
flowers, stone walkways, and fountains/streams. We were surprised to find that
a majority of this garden was made up of just trees. We then made it our
adventure to find the color and the most interesting trees we could! Our
adventure took us to Australia, South Africa, Chile, The Mediterranean, The
Canary Islands, and…. CALIFORNIA? Yes, most of California is still being
constructed but we found some palm trees. We found it amusing that California
was its own subcategory.
Highlight for
our Botanical Garden adventure was finding the Bonsai trees. They were
phenomenal! Although, it wasn’t what we were originally expecting we were happy
with the results. To end the evening we walked across the only water to be
found; a lily pond, with a few goldfish and a wooden boardwalk. Now that is a
Botanical Garden!
No comments:
Post a Comment