Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2014
I've become a fan of Antoni Gaudi, a famous Spanish architect. Although he has long since passed his legacy remains.
Ah what a luxury to have five nights in Barcelona, although our time went by very quickly. One of the reasons for a longer stay in this city was to check out the works of Gaudi. I have seen the pictures of these strangely designed buildings and knew they were 'Gaudi' buildings, but that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge.
Our first tour was to check out two of the most famous Gaudi buildings - Casa Batllò and Sagrada Famìlia. Casa Batllò is a four storey an apartment building and was redesigned by Gaudi in 1906. Although Casa Batllò is very much a major tourist attraction, there is still one resident who lives in the building - a little old lady who's identity is never disclosed. Interestingly today the owners of this building are the Chuppa Chup group.
Sagreda Famìlia is a still unfinished church, construction commenced in 1882. According to our tour guide the church is planned to be completed in 2026 in time for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. I had seen pictures of
this church and thought it quite grotesque looking, and it still is in a way, but the inside of the church is a whole other story! It is beautiful! Filled with light and colour. Gaudi had a love of nature and used this in his designs - there are no straight lines in Gaudi's architecture. I really like that concept!
The other Gaudi building we visited was Casa Milà This is another apartment block and is currently undergoing external restoration this year, but you can still go inside. One of the features of this building is the rooftop architecture. The inner courtyard was designed to let light into the apartments and for air flow. Remember these buildings were designed by Gaudi over 100 years ago - fascinating!
All trip I had been busting my fellow travellers chops to have a go on a Segway - they made me hold out until Barcelona! Mainly because I said that I'm not leaving Barcelona until it happens. So, the day before we fly to Athens off we go! What fun it was too, I'm definitely doing that again.
Our guide took us along the Barcelona waterfront where she showed us
many interesting sights. When you've never ridden a Segway before, you really need to concentrate! Our tour took us past some very busy beaches (it's peak summer after all), what we didn't factor in was the topless sunbathers nor the nudist beach!! Hold the Segway is that guy stark nakey?? Oh yes, with quite a nice body to show off, and let me say he was taking care of business, no tan lines and not a patch of hair to be seen anywhere (possibly on his head but I wasn't looking there)!! And no, it wasn't then that time I almost crashed my Segway, it was after that when George yelled out to me 'hey Cath, have a look at that girl, she's got the biggest, roundest.......', so I turn my head to have a good look (I don't like to miss out), you shouldn't turn your head when Segwaying!! All good though, I didn't hit the little children or the terrified mum and I narrowly missed the tree! I didn't even hurt myself - lucky on that one! I was obviously born to ride a Segway - a natural I think! Will we do it again! Hell yeah! It
was great fun!! Added bonus if we go by a nudey beach!
I can't finish this post without mentioning Pablo -it was here that we sadly bid Pablo farewell. We had all become attached to Pablo, he took us on a 5,911 kilometre journey from Munich through Europe to Barcelona, he got us lost a few times but was always waiting for us with his goofy grin each morning ready to take us safely to our next destination. Who knew we'd like a Citreon ...there you go ...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0467s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Greg Lane
non-member comment
What about the wine?
Great blog but no mention of food or wine? I like to know what you are sampling along the way. As for segways; I think I'll stick to motorbikes, much safer!