The first thing we saw in Barcelona was the Sagrada Familia church. You pop up out of the metro and there it is! It is so close you can’t even get a good picture of it. It was started 100 years ago and the city has grown up around it. The entrance they use at one side is not even the proper entrance because now there is a major street where it should have been.
Trumpets against the sky. Note the girl with the bassoon to the right.
Every inch is encrusted with artwork. The work stopped during the Spanish Civil War and the post-war years of poverty. But work is moving right along now. It is the most-visited attraction in Spain and all the ticket money is going towards finishing it. The Alhambra in Granada is second. We got to go up in the towers. You can see the catwalks connecting them.
The afternoon side above has warm afternoon colors and the morning side below has cool morning colors.
You can tell when we were there by the dazzling orange glow. The organ was playing when we first went in, but shortly after it was replaced by loud power tools. There is net and scaffolding up everywhere, but it doesn’t detract much.
I definitely had a crick in my neck, but you just can’t stop looking! None of my pictures go anywhere near the top. It goes up and up.
We had a little tour. That’s our guide standing in black. She focused on the progress of the work, the religious significance of various details and the architect Gaudi who took over the planning in 1929. It was his life’s work. Downstairs are lots of photos and architectural tools and models. Gaudi was a math genius and figured out a new way have vaulted ceilings without all the flying buttresses. For that reason (I think, no one said this) the city can come in so close. The whole thing soars up at the top and not out at the bottom.
Resting while we wait for our time slot to go up the towers. Note the cute Korean guy showing something to his (girl) friend on the next bench. The tour was only an hour but it seemed longer. I joked to the kids, “We have three more churches to visit tomorrow.” They groaned. We were all pooped. Then the next morning, our tour guide said, “We aren’t going to see any more churches, but more Gaudi, yes."
The towers are awesome, magical, worth the extra money. The stairwells dart up, down, across, around. To have the run of the place without the workers and minders would be amazing. Though some doors opened onto two foot ledges over a 30 ft drop with no railing. They were locked, but had clear glass panes to look through.
Those massive lights pointing up into the towers made me REALLY want to see the church at night. We didn’t get to, though because where we stayed was in another part of town.
Tristan thought the church must be 1000 years old because of all the different styles. Some parts were simple because they aren’t finished yet. I suppose you could sponsor a stained glass window if you wanted to, unless you have to be catholic. This part seemed simple by design. Those star-shaped things are supposedly part of Gaudi’s revolutionary vault design.
Here we are back where we started.
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