Architecture - ancient and modern

---

Monday 21 April
Hola. Dos cafe con leche. Gracias - this is the current extent of our spanish but we are learning fast. This means - Hello. Two coffes with milk. Thankyou.
We had a good second half of the flight courtesy of melatonin and zopiclone, and slept for a lot of the flight. We were into the hotel in the bus and then off sightseeing by midday. A lot of the sights are within easy walking distance - but the distance adds up between sights so thank goodness for good walking shoes. The first stop was the Cathedral. Ancient gothic, dark, lots of little chapels along the walls of the church, and a lot of iconography - dark wood and gold and dark coloured paint. The stained glass rose window is huge and brings a splash of colour. Walking through narrow streets with bounded by tall houses with balconies and washing fluttering in the breeze. It must be a real nuisance to drop a peg or worse still a pair of knickers down on someones head! It opens out on the marina area which is open and opulent. Small yachts in the inner part of the marina and then getting bigger and bigger closer to the sea, until the yachts are huge and the motor boats bigger. The biggest pleasure boat was the Empress of India which is the same size as some of the cruise liners that come in to Gisborne. Back on to the small streets to Eglesia de Santa Maria del Mar. This is a real contrast to the first one. it was built quickly - a mere 59 years and so has maintained a single style. The lines are clean and light. Lots of stone pìllars soaring up to a high ceiling and more light than the first church. It looked a more active church. By 6 we were fighting off a bit of nausea and jet lag, but that quickly cleared with a quick rest and food and cup of tea and we were able to get out again for a quick meal. Crashed by 8.30 though and slept most of the night without a problem.
Tuesday 22 April
Up at 6:30 and out the door by 8. Had coffee in a small deli. Repeated the sentence above and added "Dos baguettes" for two bread rolls filled with ham. We were heading for the Sagrida Familia and got there by 9 when the gates opened. The lady taking our tickets suggested that we go up in the ascenceur (lift) straight away before the queues formed. She couldn figure out why anyone wanted to wait two hours to go up in the lift for a view of the city. i don think i would want to wait two hours either - but it was definitely worth it. The towers are tall and narrow, and it was very easy to feel uncomfortable with the height. The views of the city were great, and the closeup views of the towers were even better. Venetian glass mosaics representing fruit. The church is in the process of being built - as it has been for a century! But it was good to see lot of activity in various parts of the building. Stone being cut, plaster moulds being made, development of new sections of the church and restoration of the architects original models etc. We spent three and a half hours there and barely saw it. Gaudi has modelled so much on the forms from nature and used natures complex geometric forms - such as the trunk and branches of a tree, polyhedrons and helicoids and stuff like that. He must have had an amazing mind to have worked it all out and an incredible eye for detail. Those who are following are using his ideas but adding their own input so it is a very rich building, full of detailed symbolism and form. impossible to descibe in words and even pictures stuggle to do justice to it. Today was Gaudiś day so we went to Park Guell where he had built some other buildings. We walked through the park which was dry and dusty and mainly corsican pine and olives and not very exciting. But coming to the bit that he had build it was totally different, crowded with people, full of the noise of the buskers - a trumpeter, spanish guitarists, a double bass player, and bright with ceramics and buildings that looked more like gingerbread houses with icing on top.

---

Photos

Sagrada Familia
View from one of the towers