Arenas de Barcelona, Parc de Joan Miro and FC Botiga

On our fourth day in Barcelona, we decided to go to Arenas de Barcelona in Placa d'Espanya to find the stop where the airport bus (aerobus) picked up passengers.   We planned to take the bus to the airport the following day, as taxi can be expensive in the wee hours of the morning.  Besides taxi, we could take the train, the normal bus or the aerobus to El Prat.  If we chose the aerobus, the stop closest to our apartment would be somewhere in Arenas de Barcelona.

From our apartment we took the short-cut to Arenas de Barcelona by crossing Parc de Joan Miro.  The park was named in honour of Joan Miro, a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramist.   The park, just like most parks in Barcelona, was grassless.  With sandy fields, pockets of water and palm trees lining the avenues, it looked more like an oasis.  There was even a row of taps in the park, macam tempat ambil wuduk pulak... reminded me of Islamic landscape :).  The park's crowning glory was of course, Joan Miro's sculpture:  Dona i Ocell (Woman and bird).

See if you can figure out the bird and the woman in the sculpture... :P

Once we reached Arenas de Barcelona, hubby went to look for the bus stop while the rest of us when up to the rooftop.  You can either take the elevator (for a small fee) or the escalator (free) up to the top floor to get a fantastic view of the surrounding areas.

Aerial View from Arenas de Barcelona

Our next destination was Barcelona FC, or better known in Barcelona as FC Botiga.   Camp Nou, the stadium, was located in Aristides Maillol.  From Taragona metro station, we took the line 3 metro to  Palau Reial.   This station was near the Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona.  From this station, we had to walk for about 400 metres until we reached the gate of FC Botiga.  Somebody was all smiles when he saw a billboard which featured Lionel Messi :).  

Don't ask me which one is Messi :P

We didn't go for the stadium tour due to time constraints, but the sons were very happy just to have reached this place :).  Yang not too happy was mommie who had to pay for the Barca merchandises.  Mahal gila tahap cekik darah!  The most expensive so far, compared to even Manchester United and Chelsea!  No wonder it is the *2nd richest football club in the world :P 

*  The richest football club is also in Spain - Real Madrid :)