La Sagrada Familia May 14, 2008

Sad Statue

Bigger than it looks, Bigger than you can imagine

The columns are modelled after tree trunks.

Going up, up, up

View from the Top

One of many ornate spires atop the Sagrada Familia

Spiraling down, down, down

Hard at work on continuing the vision.

Translated, La Sagrada Familia is the Sacred Family. It’s a temple that was begun in 1882 by architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. One year later the promoter of the temple, Josep Bocabella, replaced this architect with Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi died in a train accident in the fall of 1926, he worked on Sagrada Familia from 1883 until the very day he died. Gaudi’s architectural style embodies nature and appears as art but is mathematically and scientifically created to replicate the fundamental elements found in nature’s design.

At the age of 26 Gaudi wrote in his diary, “Nature does not produce anything that is monochrome or uniform in colour: neither vegetation nor in geology, not in topography not in the animal kingdom. The contrast in colour is always more or less alive and from this we are obliged to colour in part or all of an architectural piece, colouring that will perhaps disappear when the hand of time gives it another colour that is more befitting and precise for something old.”

Only about a decade after Gaudi’s unexpected death civil war broke out in Spain and Gaudi’s workshop and much of the Sagrada Familia was destroyed or desecrated. Restoration took years and the temple is now just more than 50% complete.

We were some of the first in this morning and we lucky enough to be inside with mostly just workers. Construction crews, cranes and masons are busy everywhere working continuing Gaudi’s original design based on ceramic models he made during his life.

We took an elevator that goes all the way up into one of the four currently completed bell towers. There is an amazing view of the city, all the way to the coast on one side and the mountains on the other, from here. A tight winding staircase lets you go even higher still, where you can walk out onto an open crossover and look down on the cranes. Truly spectacular.

We were given the option of taking the elevator back down or walking the winding stairs, I took a picture of the staircase and I think it will explain why we chose the former.

Back down you can walk around the grounds and visit the museum housed underneath the main area of the temple. Here there were original sketches from when Gaudi was in architecture school in Barcelona over a century ago (drawings from his workshop were all destroyed in the civil war) as well as the models being used to continue his work today.

An artisan was in a closed off workshop with glass doors where you could watch him working busily at created ceramic models. The entire workshop was a mix match of ceramic model columns, spires and more.

This was all before lunch time so I will post more about the rest of the day after I get some pictures up since I think this deserves it’s own post and image gallery.

Mas Barcelona May 13, 2008

Yummy

Me blocking the panaroma from Park Guell.

The long trek to Park Guell

at Park Guell

A nice view, whichever way you look.

One of many views from the Tres Cruces hill atop Park Guell.

So Barcelona is a gorgeous, sprawling metropolis with the best subway system I have yet to wander. There are colors, letters and numbers to help you find your way to anywhere in the city with ease – let’s just say I love it! We failed to trick our internal clocks and slept until 1:30 p.m. Barcelona time today! Disgusted with ourselves we got up and on our way as soon as we realized we had wasted most of a day. We did our best to make up for lost time and I think we may have actually succeeded. We headed first for some fuel, and by fuel I mean food.

Food was grilled pork chops for me and a quarter chicken for C. Good stuff topped off with an espresso that was totally yummy. Then we went straight up to the prettiest place in Barcelona so far – Park Guell. It was originally designed by Gaudi (the same guy who envisioned Sagrada Familia over a hundred years ago) and is like nothing you have ever seen before. It was a quick trip up the metro (aka subway) and then a short block straight up the steepest six blocks you have never seen. He He He. There was escalators on several blocks making the trip much easier and as the weather was perfect today it really wasn’t bad at all. There was a panoramic view of the city, which sprawls all the way from the mountains to the sea, from all sides atop the “Tres Cruces” hill. C took video, but we recently discovered our new camcorder is not compatible with Mac’s (I know, I know – what kind of crap is that?!) so the video will have to wait. We took lots of pictures though, before wandering around for a couple of hours through the park. Gaudi originally intended for the park to be a community of high-end home (aprox. 50) that were one with nature. He was only able to complete one before the failure of the financial backing and so that is all that currently stands, known as the museum of Guadi. The architecture that is there is so unlike anything you have ever seen it is truly hard to explain. I will let pictures do most of the talking but let’s just say there are mosaics and “trencadis” (park benches covered in pieces of broken ceramic,” and an entire forest of columned tree trunks.

After Park Guell we headed took a short bus trip through traffic and then back pedaled to our metro stop where we headed to Plaza Espana. It was a magnificent statue surrounded by lively round-about that faced a large cathedral on one side, the naval academy on the other and a university on the other. You could see the 1992 Olympic park from there, too. It was so almost overwhelming – bustling with motorcycles, joggers, Mercedes Benz taxi cabs, mopeds, cars, pedestrians and tourists, of course. After a walk around (and about a million pictures) we ended up heading over to La Rambla.

La Rambla is the most famous street in Europe, or so some say. It reminded me a little of Sixth Street in Austin, a little of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Fran and a little of the charming areas of Little Italy in NYC where you eat on the street, out with the crazies. We had dinner here, at Pizza Marzano – complete with a bottle of the house rose and baked goat cheese. It was awesome.

Back to the metro to head to the hotel, C found a closer metro stop to our hotel and we got lost for a quick second but found a park right across the street we didn’t even know was there. Only in Barcelona are people are the dog park with their dogs at midnight! Everyone here seems to have a dog, only one though, and they take them everywhere. Some people tie them to this little hooks the city installed next to popular stores (the hooks say in English translation “I’ll wait here” and have a little picture of a tied up dog) or just ride their bike down the street with them dutifully trailing behind. I’ve never seen so many Benji dogs in so little time.

Well, the camera is officially dead (I don’t know why – I only took 130 pictures today?!) and so I’ll add the pictures in the morning before. We’ll be enjoying our complimentary (meaning you already paid for it so you’ll feel guilty if you don’t eat it) breakfast before heading first thing back to Sagrada Familia to get a peak at the inside.

After we plan on hitting up Olympic Park where I’ve heard rumor the local artisans sell their homemade wares.

Thanks to everyone who has commented – keep up the good work and I’ll try to do the same!

Muchos Gracias! K&C

Beautiful Barcelona May 12, 2008

We made it in to Barcelona this morning at about 10 a.m. Spanish time, our flight was about 40 min. late. Unforunately, we didn’t get much sleep on the plane last night and though it was the middle of the night Austin time it was morning time when we arrived. We took the Metro to our hotel’s closest stop (this was easy, peasy – I feel like a metro expert!) but then walked aimlessly for at least 30 minutes, hauling all of our luggage on cobblestone streets.

The first native person to try to communicate with us asked us where our umbrella was in Catillion – it took her several hand gestures to finally get it across to us. This says so much about how everyone has been so far: super friendly, helpful, hospitable – kinda like us Texans used to be, you know?

Tons of people offered help but it was finally the balding, pudgy 50ish ambulance driver sitting in his truck casually smoking a cigarette that looked on a map for our hotels exact street number and pointed out the fact that we had twice walked in the right direction…only half a block not far enough!

When we got here, finally, the front desk guy was nice and spoke good English (though my Spanish has improved ten fold in as many hours and I am once again conversing in actual sentenances – yea me!) Our room is tiny but clean and held an unexpected delight – a bidee! We have yet to figure it out and even took some video of it in case our friends back home didn’t believe us.

We spent the afternoon wandering the nearby streets, having tapas on an outside patio and getting our first glance at the majestic and awe inspiring Sagrada Familia. The lines, or as the Europeans say “queues,” were quite long and so C suggested we get up early and be the first there tomorrow to see the inside and we think you can even go all the way up!

After a visit to the Starbucks by the Sagrada Familia in a failed attempt to trick our internal clocks we headed back to the hotel for much needed nap time for Mr C and picture upload for me. Now we’re off to explore the night life, the dinner offerings and whatever else we may happen upon!

Will post more soon – miss and love you all MUCHOS!