I’ve had so little time to blog these past few days but so much I want to tell you about. I hate that.
After a good…decent…night of rest and breakfast, we were all ready for another day of Barcelona adventure.
The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church) was at the top of our list of must-see in Barcelona. It should be at the top of yours, too.
It’s Antoni Gaudi’s most famous and persistent work. This work-in-progress, super-sized church has been in the works since 1883. Gaudi labored over it until his death in 1926. Since then, construction has moved on in bits and pieces and is not expected to be completed for several more years.
The building is a tribute to heaps and generations of architects, sculptors, stonecutters, fundraisers, and donors who are all caught up in the audacity of Gaudi’s vision for what the Sagrada Familia would someday represent.
Much to our dismay, the line to buy tickets to see inside was (according to the sign at the end of the queue), four hours long. I did find that you can made reservations in advance online, but we were several days too late for that. When I asked Alex how badly he wanted to see the inside he replied, “Only if Gaudi is standing at the alter shaking the hand of Jesus.” We agreed to Google pictures of the interior, admire the building from every exterior angle and move on with our day.
That being said, if you are planning a trip to Barcelona, make your reservations for the Sagrada Familia here so you don’t have to waste precious time standing in line!
A small park is just across the street from the church and was a great place for a diaper change and snack. But not for the poor fellow who had plans to enjoy a nice scoop of ice cream.
Isn’t that sad? We wandered onward to find a little off-the-beaten-path place for lunch. Again, we settled for sangria, tapas and paella. This is his response to, “oh no!”
He’s not sleeping on the table. He is not that baby. He would never ever fall asleep playing, eating, doing anything. He hates sleep and will even fight it in the car. So no, he just let us know he was tired by resting for a moment. Ha, what a hoot.
The Casa Milà is arguably one of the coolest buildings ever known to mankind. You can’t miss it.
The bubbly exterior of this Gaudi apartment complex is Barcelona’s “quintessential Modernista” building and was Gaudi’s last major work (1906-1910) before dedicating his time to the Sagrada Familia. The building draws a huge crowd with its “much-photographed roller coaster of melting-ice-cream eaves.” You can tour it, but again, the line was too long for our liking, especially on such a beautiful day, so we observed the exterior and moved on.
Further down the street was a famous neighborhood known for its rather extravagant architecture (are you noticing a trend in Barcelona?) and is called the Block of Discord. All were built at the end of the 19th century by well-known architects whose names I couldn’t pronounce if you paid me to. Each mansion has its own creative twist, as if trying to out-do the one next door.
We caught a train and a bus that took us up to Montjuïc, the Mount of the Jews, to get an overlook of Barcelona and its port. Ages ago, there was an impressive fortress, but it now mostly serves as an offering of great views. It was not a place to mess with in its glory days – it was complete with a moat and big bad guns.
The Spanish government built it in the 18th century to keep an eye on the city. When the 20th century dictator Franco was in charge, the castle was the site of hundreds of political executions. Lovely.
In the courtyard was this huge inflated reflecting beach ball like thing. I’m not really sure what it was or why it was there. But it was really cool.
After watching boats and soaking up the sunshine at the castle, a brisk walk down the big hill led us to the Olympic stadium, home of the 1992 Olympics.
Hovering over the stadium and Olympic grounds is the space-age looking communications tower used to transmit the high and low lights of the games around the world.
With the sinking sun, the temperatures went too. It was getting to be time to end our busy day. Owen handles traveling so well, but we try to respect his need for sleep, whether he likes it or not. We made our way back to the hotel for dinner and bedtime. The next morning we were up bright and early for an early flight which ended up getting delayed three hours due to snow back home. We got to know the Barcelona airport quite well (there’s not much there) and were finally home 12 hours later to a bunch of the cold white stuff. I admittedly like the snow. I just don’t like to shovel it or drive in it. I like to look at it from the comfort of my home. 🙂
Hope you have a great weekend!
PROST!
Janelle Vannice says
Wow, Barcelona looks like a ton of fun! I would love to visit.