Barcelona on a Bus !!

HYD – DOH – BCN – DOH – HYD – SIN – LHR – SIN – HYD was my flight plan for last 8 days. It was intense, and crazy (specially for having to come via SIN to get to HYD from LHR, flying 18 hours to get to home from London to Hyderabad). However, it was satisfying exercise to meet prospect customers from 3 Large Enterprise with participants from diverse regions and influence them to consider Cigniti as their strategic testing partner. I am finally back home this morning, and hoping (or praying) to be on HYD ground for at least two weeks, after being on air for so long in last 8 days.

Barcelona was the only new town that I had bumped into, as part of the above flight plan. Shiva and I had just 6 hours post our customer meeting in BCN.   So, get on the tourist bus, did hop on / hop off at few prominent locations (as Shiva is already familiar with the place) and captured few snaps.  I did not take any camera and there was no time either for any pics from rest of my journey.   This one snap is from an ‘authentic thai place’ in Watford outside London.

See below for videos and pics as I sign off for the weekend and plan Salman’s new movie

Video from Barcelona:

Pics from Barcelona:

Sagrada Familia : Large roman catholic church that is supposedly under construction for last 100 years.  It takes about 4 hours to get in and get out, so we took obligatory pics from outside

The Park Güell (Catalan: Parc Güell [ˈparɡ ˈɡweʎ]) is a public park system composed of gardens and architectonic elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona (Spain).  There was a long queue to get inside, so we just checked it out from its perimeter only 

Harbour region

Casa Batlló (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈkazə βəˈʎːo]) is a renowned building located in the center of Barcelona and is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. A remodel of a previously built house, it was redesigned in 1904 by Gaudí and has been refurbished several times after that.  The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as it has a visceral, skeletal organic quality. Like everything Gaudí designed, it is only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense.  Contrary to what we expected, it was fun checking out this place, and would be lot more fun for architecture enthusiasts

We closed the evening with a Flamenco dance.  Since we purchased the tickets on the tourist bus, we made it to the place just 15 minutes before the event.

For the record, we did try local cuisine and ordered Paella

Later for late evening dinner, went to an Indian restaurant.  I ordered Vegetable Biryani (as I was already missing Desi food).  However, Barcelona Biryani more looked and tasted almost like Paella

Spotted this odd shaped (commercial building?) and clicked from the bus

My flight plan almost ended in London Friday (prior taking 18 hr flight to HYD via SIN) and last meal that we had at Watford at “Authentic Thai Place” (yes that is the name of the restaurant) with awesome and authentic food.   I have fully enjoyed spicy red curry, and desi style sweet corn fritter.  I will be sure to visit this place once again