May 31 - Barcelona

What a great day it was to be in Barcelona Spain.  The sun was out and the temperature was warm.  The streets were full of Saturday shoppers and tourist out enjoying the fine weather.  In the next block, in a city square, there was a local music concert going on.  A group of six young girls, who range in age from twelve to fourteen, were singing to an audience of about thirty people in the square.   It is good to be alive.

Today we went to see the works of Spain’s most famous architect, Antoni Gaudí. This early 20^th century architect designed many famous buildings in Barcelona.  He designed and started the building of the cathedral known as the Sagrada Família.  It has taken 130 years to complete the current structure and its final completion isn’t expected to finish until 2026.  When you look at the cathedral, you think it is so ugly that it must have been designed by someone on bad drugs.  Then when you take the guided tour, you find out that Gaudi’s guiding design principal was that in nature nothing exists in a straight line or forms a perfect 90 degree corner.  Everything is curved and natural light forms colour.

For example the stained glass is blue and green on the side of the church facing south to the Mediterranean Sea and the stained glass on the other side is red and orange as it faces the sunrise. The support structure for the roof is formed to look like giant trees.  In fact the branches of these trees protrude from the roof and appear as ornamental trees on the exterior of the church.

The guide also explained the symbolism that can be found on the façades and in the interior of the church.  It was very fascinating. This ranks as one of the most impressive churches that we have ever visited.

Sagrada Família

Sagrada Família

Sagrada Família

We then went to Casa Batilo, which is an apartment building designed by Gaudi.  The word gaudy is derived from Gaudi and this best describes these apartments.  The basic design is based on the structure of a fish and on top of the building is a series of brightly coloured and whimsical turrets.  The interior atrium is a light blue mosaic, which appears to be unicoloured but in fact is several shades of blue. The different intensity of sunlight makes it appear to be all one shade of blue. Again there are very few straight lines to be found.  Everything is curved. This apartment building truly could be placed in Disney World and not be out of place.

Casa Batilo

Casa Batilo

Casa Batilo

Casa Batilo

On the way back to our apartment we stopped for lunch and had a wonderful plate of Seafood Paella.  There is nothing better than fresh seafood.

Late in the afternoon, our street was the scene of a political rally.  They were marching towards the University Square where there was a large police presence.  There should be no problems as long as there is no one causing any damage.  If they do cause problems, I pity them as the police are all giants with muscles the size of tree trunks.  As far as I can tell from the printing on a balloon they are protesting that there isn't enough guacamole in Madrid, but I could be wrong.

Protest march along our street

We decided to return to the En Ville Restaurant tonight to celebrate our last night in Barcelona.  The food as we discovered earlier was great.  Both Marg and I had lamb and John had "a baby goat."  I would highly recommend this restaurant. 

After dinner both Marg and I stopped at a bar, called Casa Almirall,  that is more than one hundred and fifty years old.  We loved the old wooden bar and the bottles that appeared to have been never used since they were placed on the shelf.  It appears to be a student bar now.

When we got back to the apartment there were helicopters flying around the neighbourhood and many police convoys blocking streets.  I went for a walk to see what was happening but there didn't appear to any disturbances going on in the immediate vicinity. The night life is.going strong, so I guess we're not in the middle of a war zone.