A Day of Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi, the father of Modernisme, shaped much of the best known architecture in Barcelona and his style was all about following nature in design, and he eschewed anything resembling a straight line. We decided to spend the entire day on just some of his best stuff.

It was shaping up to be another scorcher, and I wasn't quite sure how hot it was going to be down in the Metro. J easily convinced me to take a taxi up to Parc Guell, our first destination, but first, I needed to stop by the magic fountain on Las Ramblas that ensures that the drinker of the water would return to Barcelona since I had already fallen in love with the city.

Las Ramblas in the morning before it gets too crazy

The water from the fountains taste very "minerally"

Parc Guell dates from 1900, and it's a beautiful park situated high on a hill. The gingerbread looking buildings were inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel, and they are the first things you see.

After entering the park, there's a grand staircase leading up to the Sala Hipostila.

The place was positively crawling with people when we arrived, and we slowly wended our way up the stairs to the Sala to take refuge in its shade. It was originally designed as a marketplace, but now it's crawling with tourists taking pictures of its beautifully tiled ceiling.

A word of warning: if you don't like mosaics, you will not like Gaudi cause he loved the stuff. I love it too, and I spent most of the time smiling dementedly and taking millions of pictures. But damn, it was hot - my shirt was soaked through with sweat as we stood on the main terrace above the Sala Hipostila to admire the fantastic view of the city.

The heat soon drove us to seek refuge in the shade of a palm tree, where we were heckled by one of the many angry parakeets that live in the park.

We took a quick stroll to look around before we decided that neither of us wanted to die of heatstroke.

 

Our next stop: La Pedrera on Passeig de Gracia. La Pedrera is another of Gaudi's creations that was built in 1905-1910.

Further down the street: La Casa Batllo, which is one of the three funny-looking Modernisme houses that are together called la Manzana de la Discordia (Apple Block of Discord). Gaudi designed only La Casa Batllo, and and the other two were by other Modernisme architects.

The other buildings of La Manzana:

Casa Amatller

Casa Lleo Morera

Honestly though, I came across so much beautiful architecture in Barcelona that as amazing as Gaudi's buildings are, I admired many other buildings almost as much.

Until I saw the Sagrada Familia, considered Gaudi's masterpiece. All of the travel forums warned me that the queues for the mother of them all would be horrendous so I was sure to buy advance tickets for the main event.

As for La Sagrada Familia... there are no words. And there are no pictures that could ever do it justice. You just have to go. It's been under construction for over 100 years, and it still won't be finished for another 20 or so years.

The western exterior with bronze doors:

 

The interior:

 

 

 

 

 

The southern entrance:

The main entrance:

 

J and I spent the full hour that we were allotted wandering around the church, and it was just amazing. By the end of our tour of La Sagrada Familia, we were tired and dirty and too glad to hop into a cab to head back to the hotel. Once there, we fell into our usual routine of hot shower, room service, and zonking out.