Spain | Robert Humrickhouse

I warned you, today was Gaudi day. Our first stop was Sagrada Família. Then is was on to Park Güell, and then a walk past two residential buildings. Our feet were worn to nubs and our minds full of facts so we ended the day exhausted.

Outside, the Sagrida Familia is a powerhouse of storytelling. With towers that seem to touch clouds.

We entered through the Nativity Facade, an image onslaught of the baby Jesus’ birth.

The exterior is overpowering but upon entry I was in awe. It’s hard for me, the non-believer to say, but I felt welcome as a human being. It is a forest of peace. No Gothic scenes battering down the plebes asking for forgiveness or scenes of battle. It was pure light. Intricate, glorious light.

Windows depict the four seasons in abstract stained glass, winter,

spring,

summer,

and fall.

Combined, they make the interior glow.

Of the three facades, Nativity and Passion are complete, and Glory will be finished by 2030 when the basilica is expected to be totally complete. We exited out of the Passion facade which is cubist to say the least. Totally grim. Extra credit here for identifying the scene and solving the number puzzle.

On to the park, originally conceived for sixty homes in an eden/Gaudi environ the plan never took off and is now a city park with limited tourist access.

The tiles on the bench back are recycled pottery.

Last, and least, in my opinion, the two residential buildings. At this point it all seemed like cotton candy.

Now, it’s off to bed for an early rise for tomorrow it’s off to home. Thanks for taking the ride with us.

Long day yesterday. Traveling involved switching trains in Madrid which was a nightmare! The arrival area is about two city blocks from the departure area and we only had 30 minutes to board our second train. But we made it intact. Then we checked into our Barcelona lodging. A travel agent can make or break a trip with just one booking. We had a king room with a “terrace”. Well, look at our terrace.

Our travel agent (me) took the reins and worked with management to secure a different room. Now look at the view from our front facing balcony on the third floor.

Just through that arch in the picture above is Plaça Reial. A lively place with restaurants and tables around the perimeter. It draws every sort of crowd and the spirit is truly “Barcelona”. As a friend who recently traveled to Spain said, “Madrid is the formal, uptight, proper city and Barcelona, well anything goes.”

In fact, this morning I had a lovely Benedict in the square.

On to the events of the day. Wayne couldn’t contain his excitement to visit the Mies Van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion. It was originally built as the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. It was radical at the time.

“The pavilion was to be bare, with no exhibits, leaving only the structure accompanying a single sculpture and specially-designed furniture (the Barcelona Chair). This lack of accommodation enabled Mies to treat the Pavilion as a continuous space; blurring inside and outside.”

The building was torn down in early 1930, not even a year after it was completed. Between 1983 and 1986, a group of Catalan architects reconstructed the pavilion permanently, based on historical drawings and rediscovered footings on the site. Here is how it presents itself today.

We managed to fit in a trip to the Funicular. You take the funicular to it’s highest point, then transfer at the same spot to a gondola to get to Montjuïc Castle which sits atop Montjuïc hill. The travel agent goofed again and showed the taxi driver a map and pointed to the “hill”. He proceeded to take us to the transfer point of the gondola where we entered the funicular station, purchased tickets and proceeded to the funicular which we quickly realized was going only one direction, down. We considered it our gift to Barcelona public transit. Once realigned, we climbed aboard the gondola and got stellar views of the city.