Day 343: La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia inside is a whole other world. The outside is somewhat dark (in a way) and a bit chaotic. It’s unfinished. It’s busy. It looks like wax was dripped over it from afar. But inside… inside is bright and organized. It’s finished. It’s clean. It looks like every detail was designed with a specific purpose. It’s not as much of a collage as the exterior. And it’s huge. It makes you nod your head when someone says “Gaudi is a genius.” Because one step inside of La Sagrada Familia will make you agree.

Honestly, from the outside when we visited the other day, I was like “Yea, this is big… It’s unfinished… I guess Gaudi was an amazing architect…” But as soon as you step inside La Sagrada Familia, you feel small. Small is probably an understatement. You feel TINY and for once, you’re not as bothered by the vast amount of tourists surrounding you because it seems impossible to fill the space that Gaudi designed to be held up by tree-like columns. You’re practically in a forest. It’s pretty magical, and even more striking than the infamous exterior. At least, that’s what I think. I had a greater appreciation for the outside once I saw the inside… and I had even more of a greater appreciation for Gaudi once I stood in his forest of a church.

The Glory Facade was still under construction during our visit, but we were able to duck outside in a little enclosed area to view the doors from the outside. So. impressive. (I might not be able to say that enough about La Sagrada Familia!) Andrew and I always hunt for the Korean when different languages are represented. I think Korean tourists are always amused when they hear us read or speak Korean to each other. I’m pretty sure the LOUD Korean couple sitting behind us inside the church were downright shocked when I turned around and told them to be quiet – in Korean.

We sat for awhile, as we usually do when ducking into a church or mosque (if I’m allowed) or temple. It always makes for interesting people-watching. In this case, it was mostly watching one of the staff members try to remain calm with all of the tourists talking – or stopping to take pictures – or sitting where/when they shouldn’t have been. Behind the main altar were several smaller side altars, views of another altar below, and these giant organ pipes. Wandering back out to the center nave and I was immediately struck by the light coming through the stained glass and bouncing off of the columns. Kinda within the church, an exhibition of how Gaudi was inspired by nature was beautifully presented. As if I wasn’t already blown away by his mansions, Park Guell, and La Sagrada Familia itself- to see the comparisons between the different kinds of plants, flowers, trees, even honeycomb… and how he integrated nature into his work was ah-mazing.

We walked out to see the Nativity Façade and looking up, you tried to imagine how one would have thought of integrating so much into one façade, let alone completing the construction of it all! We walked through the exhibition of how La Sagrada Familia was realized and sometimes found ourselves just standing in front of something completely dumbfounded at how Gaudi hung bags of sand to see how he could construct La Sagrada Familia by reversing what was hanging. I’m not sure if that makes sense, and maybe you can see it behind Andrew in the video- but it was genius. That’s all there is to it. After La Sagrada Familia, we went back towards the Gothic and Born areas for an early dinner at what was to become (possibly) our favorite restaurant in Barcelona; Bo de B. If you find yourself in Barcelona, go here. Get the salmon salad. You won’t be disappointed. Well, maybe you will when you have to leave, but just walk around and look at the gorgeous street art and that should make you feel better…

We headed over to La Boqueria, the main market in Barcelona. Unfortunately, we were stuffed from our salmon salad and burger that we couldn’t even think about trying any of the food in the market! That was silly of us… But it was still fun to walk through, despite so many of the shops being closed for the summer holiday!

I’m not sure if you know this about me and Andrew (possibly even more true of Andrew) but we love gummy candy. And this stall was heaven. So much heaven that we stood in front of it for a full five minutes looking at how BIG the gummies were before we remembered we were still stuffed from Bo de B and didn’t need anymore food in our bellies.

And then, we made our way to the beach. Once we got there, I was a little amazed at how many people were crowded onto one small area. We lucked out hitting Greece before the tourist season picked up. Zanzibar was rather low-key and even Goa during Christmas was downright quiet compared to Barcelona Beach in the middle of August. And we went well after peak hours!

Day 341: Get ready for some Gaudi!

“I never knew this guy existed!” Andrew said as we started the tour. ‘This guy’ was Antoni Gaudi (1852 – 1926) and in case you haven’t heard of him either: He was a Catalan architect fueled by nature and religion and incorporated a variety of crafts (ceramics, stained glass, ironwork, and carpentry) into his work. He has a crazy distinct style and most of his work is concentrated in or around Barcelona. He’s most famous for La Sagrada Familia, the unfinished church that some say looks like wax was poured over it in the middle of the city.

I knew of him, but I didn’t really know the extent of his awesomeness until today. Perhaps that’s how everyone is… until they go to Barcelona and get their minds practically blown by Gaudi’s creativity. Which is what happened to us.Again, I might have gone overboard on the photos, but I just couldn’t help myself. We began the day with another RunnerBean Free Walking Tour (this time devoted to Gaudi) and ended the day in Park Güell marveling at the incredible amount of architecture and design and just plain awesome (yep, I said it again) art.

First stop: Palau Güell is a mansion built for Eusebi Güell between 1885–1890. We stopped on the sidewalk outside of the beautifully ornate building and heard about how expensive it was to build and how Gaudi simply didn’t care how much money he went through when designing and building the house. I think he drove the poor guy bankrupt when designing and building this house! We heard about how the first floor was where the horses would enter and the floor above was where the family received guests. I would have loved to go in, but there was a long wait and we were on to the next stop before I knew it.

Second stop: Casa Batlló (maybe my favorite house by Gaudi!) is also a mansion designed for the Batlló family between 1904–1906. It was a redesign and we were told that the interior not only reflected similar design aesthetics of the outside (curvy lines, mosaics, etc.). Even the sidewalk outside reflected the same design! The bone shaped windows and the mosaics (of course) were my favorite. I couldn’t get enough of either. At the top of the building, there was a tiny little balcony that you would see a couple every once in awhile step out onto for a picture that would be taken automatically by a camera positioned on a rod outside of the building. If I had to pick only one of Gaudi’s houses to go in, it would be this one! Why don’t more architects design crazy houses like this one!

Third stop: Casa Milà was yet another mansion built for Roser Segimon and Pere Milà between 1906–1912. As much as I loved Casa Batlló, I loved the story behind this mansion even more. We were told by our guide that when it was built, mothers would cover their children’s eyes as they passed because they thought it was shameful or something! Ha! Also the wife, Pere Milà sounded like a real piece of work. In other words, she hated the design. So much so that she even altered some of the interior design. We were pointed out a beautiful interior ceiling from the sidewalk outside, it looked like an ocean of white waves. She hated it and ordered it to be covered up.

Andrew nudged me and asked if I thought it resembled Cappadocia. I nodded, and quickly after, Andrew asked our guide if Gaudi had ever been to Turkey. He hadn’t, but our guide knew exactly what he was thinking and quickly opened his binder up to show a picture of the same fairy chimneys we visited in Turkey a few months ago! It was one of those moments where we both felt a little bit smart, and a bit of ‘We really ARE learning things on this trip!’

Fourth stop: La Sagrada Familia and no, it’s not a mansion. It’s the huge (HUGE) unfinished church that Gaudi worked on starting in 1883 until he died in 1926. According to our guide, the Roman Catholic church will be finished in 2026 (100 years after Gaudi’s death) but he seemed to roll his eyes that it actually will be finished by then. I have to say, I might be somewhat surprised as well considering how much is finished compared to the pictures of what was left to go.

Again, we stayed on the outside of the church hearing all about it, knowing we would come back another day to spend more time exploring the interior. I have to point out though, some of the designs on the outside reminded me a bit of Star Wars characters. Can you see it? I just love seeing and wondering of the possibility of all of these different artistic influences. Ancient fairy chimneys in the middle of Turkey influencing Gaudi… in turn influencing George Lucas… Maybe it’s a stretch, maybe it’s not, either way it’s fun to fantasize about the connections.

Outside the church, vendors lined up with the usual fare. A few made use of their time by sneaking in a chess game. En route to our next stop, I couldn’t help observe this out of place balcony in Barcelona. Where is the laundry? The Catalan flag? The pretty chairs and potted plants? What’s going on with this larger than life barbie?

Fifth stop: of our own, not a part of the tour, we picked up some picnic food and headed to… Park Güell! It was actually a perfect idea because it fit in nicely with our Gaudi themed day and it turned out to be such a lovely place to sit and eat and people watch! I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this “Free Park Güell” graffiti because park officials (or maybe city officials?) are debating charging an entrance fee to the currently free park. After our visit, and considering how expensive it is to get inside any of Gaudi’s houses and/or La Sagrada Familia, it would be such a shame to charge an entrance fee to this beautiful park!

We actually sat in the lower court, enjoying the cool concrete and shade for awhile. I couldn’t get enough of the mosaics on the ceiling. Aren’t they gorgeous? Groups of tourists would try to take pictures of themselves with the ornate circles, but I was more keen on placing my camera on the ground to get a good shot with my long lens.

Afterwards we headed to the colonnaded footpath with huge rock pillars twisting up to support the roof above similar to the pillars supporting La Sagrada Familia. It was beautiful, and even more beautiful when we walked down a bit further away from the crowd and it suddenly felt like we had the place to ourselves- that is, after I politely shouted in Korean to the Korean girls looking at pictures of themselves to please move out of my shot. 

The main square was lined with a snake-like mosaic bench and provided a beautiful view of Barcelona below. Park Güell was actually supposed to be a housing community, but only two houses were built- one of which can be seen at the main entrance to the park and the other bought and lived in by Gaudi.

Gaudi’s house has since been turned into a museum and features some furniture that he designed for others, furniture that he himself used in the house, and some drawings and plans by Gaudi himself.

We walked around some more, and then eventually made our way out of the park through the main entrance, past the multicolored mosaic salamander (the dragon), and a boatload of people taking their picture with it. It seemed like a bit of a circus and I thought it was a bit funny to see people posing with so many others in their picture! So, I took a picture of everyone taking pictures. You know, getting all of the madness in before we left.