Gaudi and beyond

Wonder where we got out word gaudy?  Well even if someone wants to say it comes from Antonio Gaudi, that is not the case…but maybe it should be!  It was supposed to rain today but it was only cloudy so off we went.  We used up our second and last day on the HOHO tour bus to go on the blue line and see the Gaudi sites.  We first walked to the Renfe station to see how long we need to allow to walk to the train station, buy our ticket, and find our train on Tuesday when we go to Figueres to meet our cousins there for lunch and a visit to the Dali museum.  We must figure one hour to do that since the walk was a brisk 35 minutes.  After our walk we treated ourselves to a Café com leche and a bagettini at a small Catalan shop. 

As I said we got on the blue line near that location, on the block of discord, and headed to Sagrada Familia and planned to get off there and go inside for a visit. Our plans quickly changed for two reasons; 1) it took two stops to get a good seat on the upper level of the bus (photos are impossible from the lower level) and 2) when we saw lines around several corners to even enter this cathedral we were quite discouraged.  Instead we decided to ride the full blue route then see if the line was shorter upon our return.  If it was not we would skip that and enjoy Guell Park instead, which is exactly what we did.  While it would have been interesting and fun to see inside Sagrada Familia we did not want to devote the time to waiting to get in.  We took photos of the different facades but it is so large you cannot get it all in one photo. You see there is scaffolding all over as well. It is a work in progress of course.  I believe they said when it is done in 50 years it would have 16 towers. So we passed that up and went to Guell Park.  This place was to be an upper class residential community that Gauti planned.  It would be self contained with its own markets, etc. but the idea just didn’t fly so his venture failed.  It is now a park and a very nice one indeed.  I am not sure if it was so crowded because it was Saturday, but it was crowded and impossible to take photos, or good ones anyway, because of all the people.  However, once we were past the entrance it didn’t seem near as crowded and it was very enjoyable. The whole place to me is a cross between Lord of the Rings and Hansel and Gretel!  It is gaudy but cute, interesting and fun.  This photo of the entrance is not taken by me but from the internet. We spent several hours here walking all over the park and toured the only “house” in the park that was built as a model to sell homes there.  It is not furnished with original furnishings but it does have many items of furniture that Gaudi designed and architecture speculations for many aspects of the building and features he planned.  Back down the hill and back on the bus, past the famous FCB stadium here and noted the hordes of people happily on their way to the match tonight. This stadium is the largest in Europe holding close to 100K people.  If Steven was with us we would be seeing a Football (soccer) match in the fabulous stadium! We disembarked at Placa de Catalunya and when walking back to our flat we we happy to see that we did not miss the Sardana dancing by the Barcelona Cathedral.  For me this was really the highlight of my day.  Sardana is the patriotic dance of the Catalan people, of which I am remotely one via my great grandparents (French Catalan).  I SO wanted to attempt dancing but I did not think I could do it and not ruin it for someone else.  I would have joined a group that looked like they were beginners but all of the dancers looked very good!  Well, perhaps tomorrow.  It was amazing to watch people toss their belongings in the middle of the circle, join hands, and reach back to the days of their ancestors.  The music was fantastic and moving as well. 

Tonight we met Phiilipe who is our “neighbor” at the little café downstairs, right next to our flat.  We had a small snack there before returning to our flat for the evening. Pesto Lasagna might be our new favorite food!  Barcelona is amazing!