Week-end in Barcelona (1): A morning at Park Güell

I've been going to Barcelona for work for many years, and yet I have never spent time to get to know the city properly... I spent my days in offices, my evenings in restaurants, bars and hotels, but I always sped past the gorgeous sights and often told myself I had to go back with time. So last week-end, as the UK braced itself for a snowy Easter, Monsieur Baby (who has requested to be renamed Little Monsieur for the purpose of this blog, seeing as he doesn't consider himself a Baby anymore, apparently!), Hubby Dearest and I relocated temporarily to Barcelona's Hotel Arts and toured the city at length for three full days.

One particular sight I was keen to spend time on was Park Güell: on my first work visit to Barcelona, I was a junior analyst and I helped organise a grand dinner for our clients on the terrace of the park, and I was amazed at its beauty... The sad part is that throughout the whole evening, I was so focused on doing a good job, I didn't take a minute to take in the sights, and I always regretted it.

So of course this was our first stop on Saturday morning. We took a tour bus allowing to hop on and off (always my favourite way to see a city, especially with a toddler in tow) and, after a short walk up the hill, we finally arrived. Park Güell is a fabulous place where you could easily spend a whole morning... it was a bit windy when we visited and of course Little Monsieur has the patience of a mouse so we couldn't linger as much as we'd normally do without our little tyrant...

My favourite place is definitely the lower court underneath the terrace, with its doric columns which support the tile adorned ceiling. I believe this was meant to be a market court for the residential community that Park Güell was meant to become. I like the terrace with its sea serpent shaped bench, but, unlike the first time I came here, it was incredibly crowded and I didn't enjoy it as much...

Little Monsieur had a blast playing peek-a-boo behind the columns, and we thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful modernist architecture blending in with the gardens. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!
Find out more about Park Güell here: http://www.parkguell.org/