Advertisement
Published: March 30th 2011
Today was a great day. I found my way to the cable car that goes over the water and up to Montjuic, where the Olympic Stadium is. I didn't take time to see that, but did see some great views of the City and Mediterranean. It was nice to take some cable cars and sit while looking at the views. While I was up there, I had another "bag" lunch. It was a ham and cheese on baguette sandwich, chips, Coke and later an espresso. Will have to make dinner more exciting, because this was purely functional.
Once back down near the Port, I walked along the waterfront until I came to Frank Gehry's big fish. It is a big symbol of the village, so I wanted to see it. Oddly enough, it is not a building, but rather a cover for a plaza. Still, it was pretty interesting to see. If you read down through my Prague entries, you will see the Dancing House that he did. I decided to take it easy on myself, so grabbed a taxi to take me to the Sagrada Familia. I studied the architect, Antonio Gaudi, in architecture school and was fascinated by
his work. Sagrada Familia was amazing. As dark as it is on the outside, it was incredibly light and airy inside. I will put up a picture of one of the stained glass windows. As trite as it may sound, the interior soars to the sky, something I was so not expecting. Usually churches like this are dark and foreboding, not joyous and full of life. Later I took an elevator on the backside up about 50 meters. From there I walked up and down and around in the circular towers. There were some truly outstanding photo opportunities up here. My favorite is the one of the shadow of the cathedral on the green lawn. It was quite packed here, so I took a couple subway lines to Park Guell. The subway was very user friendly which helped a lot. I haven't found the City to be that user friendly to lost tourist, but perhaps that is just me. The people I have spoken with have been very friendly and helpful, but the signage is not as good as some of the other cities I have visited.
Park Guell was built to be a "select garden city." Without going
into too much detail and risk boring you, I will just say that it is a park with a few whimsical houses and some truly fantastic design elements. I spent hours here walking up and down, taking pictures, listening to a violinist play in the Hall of 100 Columns, and generally being overwhelmed by how beautiful it is. I can only imagine what it must be like during summer when the flowers are in bloom. Much of the design element is mosaics. The benches, walls, and ceilings are filled with all sized mosaics of every color imaginable. I used the Macro setting on my camera and took a plethora of photos of the intricate mosaics. From what I remember, Gaudi would have his workers pick up all the old bottles and dishes they found so they could be broken into small pieces for these decorations. If you haven't picked up on it yet, this has truly been the highlight of the trip so far. I could go on for a long time (and you thought I already had rambled enough about this) but I won't. If you are interested, I would strongly recommend checking out a DVD on this although
Inside Sagrada Familia
It is a nice picture, but still doesn't do justice to this place.seeing it in person is something different altogether.
After Park Guell, I was so tired and so tourist-ed out that I took a city bus back to the hotel. I knew that I needed to be on the 24 bus, and felt confident that I would end up where I needed to be. Being a type A control freak, it is sometimes difficult to let go and realize that if I miss a bus stop, or go the wrong direction that it is ok. Best case scenario I take another bus, worst case I take a taxi. Vacation and travel are good for me in helping to remember that sometimes it is the journey and not always the destination. Some of my favorite memories are things I ran across while lost. Right now it's around 9PM, so once I am done here, it's off to find some delicious Spanish food.
Well now, that was an adventure. I am kind of a pain when I travel, because I don't like to eat at places that cater to tourists. There is a fine line between a place I like, and a dive, so I walk around for such a long
time to find just the right balance. En route, I was accosted by a, we will say she was a very friendly, lady. She actually came up to me twice and wouldn't leave me alone. I was raised to be polite, but even I had enough. After I yelled at her to leave me alone please, (see polite) she stormed off mocking me. Just another day in the world of travel. I did, however, find a great restaurant. Had the most magnificent Iberian Meat and Cheeses, see picture, Fried Artichokes with Romesco Sauce, Light but flavorful Gazpacho, and some Broad Beans with Ham (not everything can be spectacular I guess, sigh) and then a Catalan Custard that I paired with Cava, otherwise known as Champagne. It was actually worth having that woman bother me since that put me on the street to this place. Walking home at 2300, I realized just how lost I was. Not sure how I ended up so darn far away from where I thought I was, but my travel self kicked in and I just walked until I figured out where I wanted to be.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0681s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Tami Hastings
non-member comment
wonderful!
Brendan, Marlene shared your travel blog link with me. I enjoy reading your daily logs and looking at your pictures. Looking forward to your next entry. Be careful!! "Tami K" Tami (Kritzler) Hastings