We rose, showered etc and went to find Sagrada Familla, the most wonderful
Cathedral in
world, and my main reason for wanting to visit Barcelona. This was Gaudi's
dream, to which he devoted a great part of his life .It is still under
construction although Gaudi died in 1926, and incidentally is the only Cathedral
in the world still under construction, I am saddened by the fact that I will
never see it's completion either as this is planned for 2030. All the photos of
this gorgeous building taken over the years have cranes and scaffolding inside it.
My first sight of Sagrada Familla is everything I'd hoped it would be and
more. We ate at a cafe with it in view, as Andrew is hungry and I am itching
to get there, ordered a frankfurter roll, it arrived deep fried with cheese and
an omelette inside it?!! The caffe solo was excellent.
Time to explore at last, we ascended the escalator to the
tree of doves, and stood out on the suspension bridge just 25 metres below the
peak of the highest tower. This frightened Andrew a bit as there is a drop to the
ground with no visible means of support, as you can see from the pix. We had to
walk down all the stairs in that photo that looks like a snail's shell - it's a
long way down and you can see all the way to the bottom through the centre of
the spiral.
Gaudi designed this exquisite structure
based on a forest, so it is all open plan and organic, amazing to see the sky
from every angle of the roof. We spent a lot of time here, Andrew prefers the
more modern looking rear of the Cathedral with all the square headed sculptures.
I am absolutely
overawed by all of Sagrada Familla and find it extremely difficult to leave,
there are
many backward glances till it is out of sight.
Next we went up the 8 escalators and many steps and hills to Park Guell -
originally owned by Count Eusebi Guell, who was Antoni Gaudi's friend and benefactor,
and commissioned a
great deal of Gaudi's work. We started at the top of the park with lots of views of Barcelona below us.
We explored the pink house where
Gaudi lived and worked on his many creations for the last 20 years of his life,
it's now a museum. His bedroom and bathroom here are both still the originals, although this house
was not designed by him.
Andrew took photos of the incredible undulating tiled benches in the huge sitting
area
of the park called the Hipostila Room. There are lovely curved rock walls surrounding
the whole area. We ordered a jug of Sangria and just sat relaxing and looking at
the park for a while. The staircase down to the columns contain the famous
lizard fountain, we eventually went down and walked under the tiled benches to
the graceful leaning columns and their highly decorated tiled roof which is the ceiling of the
Hipostila Room, a totally stunning design.
The gingerbread house style porters cottage
is now a gift shop, and the lovely house
which was originally built for the administration of the park has become a bookshop,
they flank the main gate to Park Guell.
Again we left reluctantly and walked down the steep hill looking for
refreshment, we found the Cubaniche cafe for a beer serve by a lovely Caribbean
man with a great sense of humour. We decided to go back down to the Sagrada Familla at
9.30pm to see it
illuminated by night. It is all in gold at the bottom and green at the top, a dramatic mixture as it looks warm, cosy and inviting below with a really eerie and magical
feel to all the towers wrapped in green.
Took the Metro back to La Ramblas where we went to
Alex restaurant for dinner , a lovely mozzarella and tomato salad, wine and
"Coffee inside a tequila," as the waiter put it. A steak for me and pizza for
Andrew. Back to hotel where we had some wine and I typed up the diary. It's been
a wonderful day.
