Barcelona - Day 1

On Friday, June 24th, we arrived in Barcelona and we had a busy two days planned.  Michael's comment as we were leaving the boat was "I don't want to get off the boat."  I think that sums up all of our feelings about getting off the boat and how  much of a WONDERFUL time it was!!!

Oh how sweet, Uncle love!!!!  Then what the picture doesn't show is Uncle David messing with Gabby afterwards.  :-)

There was a HUGE line for cabs, so we waited and waited and waited.  We finally made it and it took three cabs to get us all to the hotel.

As we were driving to the hotel, we saw this, the Columbus Monument.  It is a 197 feet tall monument to Christopher Columbus.  It was constructed in 1888 in honor to Columbus first voyage to the Americas.  There is so much meaning in everything that they put on this statue, from the top all the way to the base, and with what he is even holding.

We all made it to hotel finally, and after dropping off our bags we headed off to find someplace to eat.  What I didn't realize is that it was a holiday in Barcelona that day.  So it was a little harder to find a restaurant open.

Thankfully we found a little restaurant not far away that was open.  The kids had their own table and were very happy about it!!

And the adult table.  I think we were all happy to find a place to eat and sit in the shade!!!

So happy to be with my family!!

The first place on our schedule was La Pedrera,"The Stone Quarry."  It was originally called Casa Mila.  They call it the stone quarry because of an ironic allusion to the resemblance of its façade to an open quarry.  It was constructed between 1906-1912 by Antoni Gaudi. 

Casa Mila was built as two apartment blocks with independent entrances linked by two large inner courtyards and a sinuous common façade that conveys the rhythm of the interior.  The structure of the house is made of pillars and contains an open plan floor with large openings on the façade. The building marked a break with the architectural language of Gaudí’s work in terms of innovation in both the functional aspects and the constructive and ornamental ones.  There are 13 apartments with people still living in them.  There are also 300 brick arches with varying widths and heights.

There are 38 structures on the roof.  Most chimneys are grouped 2 or more.

As you can see the roof is HUGE!  Gabby and AJ listening to the audio tour.  The roof exceeded the height it was supposed to when built, but a little money and talk made it so the roof could stay.

The decorations on the roof are broken shards with ceramic tiles.

This arch frames La Sagrada Familia, which is also one of Gaudi's architecture wonders.

Mom heading down the stairs to the attic.

I thought this was really cool.  It is called an estereo funicular.  It is used to see how well the building would go.  They hang the chains upside down and if you look in a mirror under it you can see what it would look like.

The attic was a communal area, used to wash clothes, etc and insulating the chambers to make it energy efficient.  Gaudi liked to use animal structures in his building.  The arches are shaped like a snake.

Gaudi's architecture and designs did not merely mimic nature; they were the result of attentive and intelligent observation of natural forms, structures, and functional characteristics.  This is made clear by the different models based on natural (animal and vegetable) forms.

This is what he based wavy surfaces on.

These are for the curved surface.  You can see here that the attic looks like the snake.

Gaudi was also into making ergonomically correct furniture.  Here is one of his chairs he designed.

I really liked these, they are different handles for doors, drawers, etc. that fit your hand perfectly.  It was really neat!!

Here is a closer look at one of the handles.  It was such a cool house.  Gaudi even made skeleton pillars and beams which made it an open plan.  With that plan the layout and apartments can be changed.  So if they want to move walls, they could with no problem.

After that we tried to look for an ice cream shop, but weirdly enough, we couldn't find one.

So we decided to head to our next tour.  Michael and Grandpa were doing tricks with their tongues on the metro.

Our first look at La Sagrada Familia.  You can see the cranes near the roof because it is still under construction.  This church is built solely on donations.  There is no money from any place else including the Vatican.

We had a little time before our tour began and luckily we found an ice cream shop.  So we had some ice cream and Michael had churros.  Smiles all around for sitting down and having some gelato!

Al decided he needed a little bit of espresso before the next tour.

Mom and Dad decided to take a little break and people watch while the rest of us did a little souvenir shopping.

They do a security check as you were heading into La Sagrada Familia.  I would check those two, they are kind of scary and seedy looking.  LOL  :-)

The construction was started in 1882 and as I said before is still going.  Gaudi wanted to build the Bible out of stone.   There are three facades on this building.  One is the nativity façade, on the passion façade and the last is the glory and final judgment façade (this one is elevated).

This Christmas looking tree with doves on it is a Cyprus tree - "The life tree."  It is always green and shows eternal life.

There are 8 towers now.  You can see how big it is.  Constructed between 1894 and 1930, the Nativity façade was the first façade to be completed.  This is the one you can see in the picture.  The façade faces the rising sun to the northeast, a symbol for the birth of Christ. It is divided into three porticos, each of which represents a theological virtue (Hope, Faith and Charity).   Originally, Gaudí intended for this façade to be polychromed, for each archivolt to be painted with a wide array of colours. He wanted every statue and figure to be painted. In this way the figures of humans would appear as much alive as the figures of plants and animals.  After Gaudi died, they decided against painting everything.

When it is finished, this is what it is supposed to look like.  It will have 18 towers total, they still have ten to build.  They are 75% done with the construction of it.  The last tower will be 565 feet tall which will become the highest in the world. 

There were two turtles under the columns at the entrance symbolize long life.

If you look in the middle of the picture you will see a chameleon.  That symbolizes change.  Like I said, everything that is built on here symbolizes something.

This side is the nativity façade. It celebrates life and nature. Here you see Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus.

This is angle Gabrielle with his arm out telling Mary about being the mom to Jesus.

These are the three wise men that came to visit Jesus and bring him gifts.

This is on the doorway into the church.  It was made by a Chinese artist.  Michael had a great time looking for the spiders, ladybugs, etc.

The inside was nothing what I expected after I saw the outside.  It was so different and fantastic!!!  The inside was built after Gaudi died.  He knew that he wouldn't see it finished, which is why he wanted to start on the Nativity façade.

You are looking at the side that has the nativity façade.  It faces East where the sunrises.  The colors blue and green representing the sunrise and birth. 

The columns are made to look like palm trees.

This is St Joseph and St Mary is on the other side.

You can see the great spiral stairs at the end of this hallway.  You can see some of the colors from the stained-glass windows.  So beautiful!

On the West, they had red and yellow for the sunset.  This is also the side where the passion façade is.  We came at the right time of day because the sun was shining in and making the stained glass glow.

Up here is the choir loft.  It is on both sides of the church.  The choir loft has a capacity of 1,200 singers.  In 2010, they had over 1000 singers.  Our tour guide said it was amazing to hear them sing!

On the ceiling they had many different symbols.  There is Px for peace, sword for justice, and the infinity symbol.

Look at the way the sun comes in through the windows!!

You can see the palm trees a little better.

The crew listening to our tour guide about the interior of the church.

The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The nave vaults reach forty-five metres (150 ft) while the side nave vaults reach thirty metres (100 ft). The transept has three aisles. The columns are on a 7.5 metre (25 ft) grid.   Gaudi wanted to make it look like you were in the woods in paradise.  The central vault reaches 200 feet.  The main altar in this picture is under construction right now, but you could still see how beautiful it was.

A closer look

I know I have quite a few pictures of the stained-glass, but I can't help it - Look how that sun is coming in!

Last two - Can I tell you again how glad I am we did it this time of day?!?!  Also with the holiday, there were no construction workers making lots of noise!!  There are 150 workers that work on this.

This side is the passion façade.  In contrast to the highly decorated Nativity Façade, the Passion Façade is austere, plain and simple, with ample bare stone, and is carved with harsh straight lines to resemble the bones of a skeleton. Dedicated to the Passion of Christ, the suffering of Jesus during his crucifixion, the façade was intended to portray the sins of man.

This was when Jesus was betrayed.  The number square beside them, when you add four numbers it will always add up to 33.

It was hot and the kids were done - can you tell?  Michael even took off his headphones and stopped listening to the tour guide.

The scenes sculpted into the façade may be divided into three levels, which ascend in an S form and reproduce the Via Crucis of Christ.  The lowest level depicts scenes from Jesus' last night before the crucifixion, including The Last Supper, Kiss of Judas, Ecce Homo, and the Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus.  The middle level portrays the Calvary, or Golgotha, of Christ, and includes The Three Marys, Saint Veronica, Saint Longinus and a hollow-face-illusion of Christ. In the third and final level the Death, Burial and the Resurrection of Christ can be seen.

A bronze figure situated on a bridge creating a link between the towers of Saint Bartholomew and Saint Thomas represents the Ascension of Jesus.

This is Gaudi before his death (which was unfortunate because he was hit by a trolley.  He is buried here under Sagrada Familia.  He only saw 20% of his vision done and it was only 3 meters high when he died. 

Here is the estero funicular for Sagrada Familia.  Still such a cool idea to see if the building will hold.  There are over 3.5 million people that visit here a year, about 10,000 a day.  Thankfully it wasn't too busy when we were there which was nice and our tour guide was fantastic!!  It was another great day and were able to see some wonderful sights!!  We headed back towards our hotel, found some dinner and played some cards.  Another great end to a fabulous day!!!