Barcelona is so Gaudí

Day 2 in Barcelona I finally got my act together. Clocks all corrected, I had plenty of time to dress and eat in the morning before our walking tour.


Candy store I think?


Las Ramblas. Big open area with little shops on the side. We were told to watch our bags for pick pocketers here. Well, we were told that everywhere in Barcelona. Within the first 5 minutes of arriving at the hotel, our director had his entire bag stolen... right there in the lobby! He had just sat it down to check in. Another girl had her ipod taken the first day.



The street workers have to register with the city... that way they won't have more than one type. And only a certain number of street workers are allowed. Cati said they used to be more incredible, but now they've gotten kinda lame.


Barcelona market.


Way more fun than Valencia's! CANDY!


Some plaza



Crazy lamp posts:
Some of the first work by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona.


Cool candy shop



The tour group with our guide Cati



Statue Head by Roy Lichtenstein.
I took this for Kim...isn't this who Roy is named for? (Roy's a dog. Kim's an art teacher)


We went by a church and a cathedral...but only saw the outside of the cathedral. But no worries, the coolest thing was yet to come.




The last thing on our Barcelona agenda was the Sagrada Familia. Had NO CLUE what this was gonna be. For all I knew, it was a prominent Barcelona family... but like mafia type family... and we were going to see their mansion. WRONG



Well... I guess it is sorta like a mafia house. It is a church dedicated to the Holy Family (as opposed to just one saint like most church's). This church (consecrated as a basilica in 2010) is not finished. Antoni Gaudí designed it and construction began in 1882 and it hasn't stopped since (except for a few years during the Spanish civil war). But people can still go to see it...even as it is being constructed. So even people who saw it a few years ago come back because now it looks completely different.

The first side is dedicated to the birth of Christ.


Tops of some of the towers that have been built. They have different bunches of fruit at the top.


Christmas tree


7 or 8 of the 12 towers have been build (representing the disciples)


More birth of Christ




This is what it will look like when they finish. That top tower with the cross (for Jesus) is going to be something like 170 meters (don't ask me to convert that now... it is late.) But I do know that is only a little less than the highest mountain in Barcelona. Because Gaudí wanted to create something perfect, but nothing could be more grand or perfect than God's creation (aka the mountain). They have not even started the tallest tower. Another tower will be for Mary and 4 for the gospels.


In the basement is Gaudí's actual model for how he created this church. He invented his own column. That's right. A totally new column. Who does that? He got his inspiration from nature for everything he did. And for the columns in this church his inspiration came from the trees. Don't ask me any more details about the new column, I barely understood it. I guess if I understood it then I would've created a new column myself. Basically it was a column that could hold more weight than previous ones. This model below was how he determined how much weight the structure could hold. Those are tiny little sand bags.


Then he built the church as a mirror of image of the model.


Here is the genius himself.


The other side of the church is dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
Looks completely different right?


Gaudí didn't design this side. He knew he'd be dead before the church would be finished. So instead of dictating how it should be done, he left it up to other artists to decide the design. Some people don't like the way this side looks. It's a lot more sharp and doesn't look like Gaudí's stuff at all. But other people say that is how Gaudí would've wanted it.


Christ being whipped


His back with the marks


There are way more scenes and I am pretty sure I photographed the all. But you know the story of the Passion. So you get the idea. Next, we went inside.... which is maybe the most incredible thing I have seen yet. Possibly because I was completely surprised (well, let's be honest. I was completely surprised we weren't at a mafia house). But even more so after entering! It looked like NO OTHER church I'd ever seen before


The glass is just colored glass. No pictures or anything.


Ceiling. You can see how it is modeled after a forest canopy. Those four circles represent the 4 gospels.


John


Mark



Matthew


Luke


More ceiling




The light coming through even makes it look like light coming through the leaves in the woods.


The side of the church opposite this one isn't finished. They have barely begun building it. Only a few years ago it was completely open.


Girls and Sagrada


Spring has made it to Spain!



Since I came in late Monday, I missed the big park that everyone went to. So, I went alone (which I think I prefer now) after the Sagrada Familia. The park is called Park Guell.

The steep incline to the park that I climbed.


View of Barcelona from the park (that is the Sagrada Familia)



"Look. It is the building they call the suppository." --Our director Ignacio. He wasn't kidding.


Dork


The park has tons of Gaudí designed bridges. This is where he experimented with his new column before he started the church.


Self timer



More Gaudí columns


Gaudí's house was in this area. He and another dude wanted to make it a neighborhood, but no one would buy the lots because then, it was considered outside of the city. So they gave the land to the city. Now houses in this area of Barcelona are worth millions.


Gaudí's house


I took this picture on self timer. Then I think a girl saw me and felt bad for me. She offered to take it. But I liked the self timer one better.


There were musicians playing under every bridge.


Getting to the main entrance of the park (I had come in a side entrance)







What I would've seen first if I had come in the main gate.



Views as I hiked up the last hill to the 3 crosses.






One of the 3 crosses


Suppository and Sagrada


Just Sagrada


All these French dudes on the crosses. I waited, and they never even looked like they were about to leave.


You get the general idea. 3 little cement crosses on top of that pile of rocks.


Back down ....and down.. and down.



Looking up (to show what I had to climb in the beginning)




Wonderful day in Barcelona. But Barcelona is when I started to be ready for America. Maybe it was because I had had a taste of familiarity in London (the food, language, Sarah) or I was so miserable in my hot Barcelona hotel or maybe I was just tired of traveling. But in the past, when I've been tired of traveling (in Rome and Paris) I have been ready to go back to Valencia. But this feeling was a little different. I didn't want to go back to a dorm and a small kitchen shared by 10 people. I barely recognized the feeling, but I'm now certain it was the feeling of wanting to go home. So that's new.