Barcelona part 1

some pictures.... more will be added later...

I love the little kid watching Travis climb up...

by Port Olimpic

naked boaters

inside first church from walking tour... one of Europe's largest round stained glass windows

first church from walking tour

memorial for Santa Eulalia

Catalonian Government building

Barcelona Cathedral cloister

bombing damage to building

Barcelona Cathedral

sculpture of Wilfred the Hairy on Barcelona Cathedral

Cathedral at the end of our walking tour

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf

Cascade Fountain in Parc de la Cuitadella also designed by Gaudi

Parliament of Catalunya building

beach at night Wednesday

view from our hostel of their Gherkin

Parc Guell-- all designed by Gaudi

Gaudi's house in Parc Guell

mosaic bench in Parc Guell

view from the top of Parc Guell

underneath the mosaic bench

I love the mosaic lizard :)

old umbrella factory on La Rambla

Columbus Column

One of our new favorite foods! Paella!!

Naked man

Donut man

Last week on 7/13 we flew out to Barcelona. It was an amazing city and we had a great time! We will definitely have to go back whenever Sagrada Familia is finally finished. Also need to explore so much more of Spain. We didn't get in till almost midnight on 7/13. Luckily there were some nice Spanish guys that helped us figure out what night buses we needed to take to our hostel, Barcelona Urbany Hostel.

On Wednesday we first went to Sagrada Familia church. This is the one I'm sure everyone has seen pictures of. The first stone was laid in 1882 but only a year later Antoni Gaudi took over as architect. It is still being completed after over 100 years of construction. There are two completed facades of the church, the Nativity and Passion. The Passion facade is the modern one that was only completed recently. It's the side you go into to start the tour. There are 4 bell towers on this side representing 4 apostles. The other side is the Nativity Facade that was completed by Gaudi before he died. It has more detailed and classic looking sculptures. It also has 4 bell towers for 4 apostles. Another 4 will be built for the last 4 apostles than 4 spires for the Evangelist, one for Mary, and the tallest (twice the size of the others) for Jesus. On the Nativity Facade there are two pillars are held up by two tortoises sculptures. There are something like 100 animals and plants represented on the Nativity side. The inside of Sagrada Familia was really impressive. We got audio guides and once they said that they columns inside were like trees it became really obvious. They even have branches going off them. There are holes in the ceiling to allow in sunlight that make it look like sun coming in through the tops of trees. I think they recently finished the ceiling over the Nave. The stained glass windows were really beautiful. They were made of broken pieces of different size and types of glass. Models are used to help design parts of the church. They are trying to stick to the plans made by Gaudi. Many of the models he had made were damaged during the Spanish Civil War so there are people making both new models and restoring Gaudi's.

After Sagrada Familia we went to visit La Pedrera, another building designed by Gaudi. It was completed in 1910 as an apartment complex with some other stuff. The balconies have wrought-iron work that looked like sea animals and plants. The building is really curved. The roof is supposed to be great to see because of the sculptures like chimneys looking like mideval warriors. We didn't go in because it was sort of expensive and there was a long line. Nearby we walked to see another home designed by Gaudi called Casa Batllo. I liked the outside of this one more than La Pedrera. The roof is supposed to look like a dragon's back and the balconies like the skulls of his victims. The rest of the day we spent at the very crowded Barcelona beach. It was nice to be at a beach again. But at Barcelona beaches there are constantly people walking around trying to sell you cokes, beers, dresses, and massages. Also a funny donut man who dances and sings carrying a tray of donuts on his head. We walked down the beach to Port Olimpic to try and find somewhere to eat but that area was a bit expensive so went back to where we started. There we found a really good restaurant where I discovered a new favorite food... paella!

Thursday we started with a free walking tour of the old city/gothic part of town. The tour started in Placa Reial. Barcelona is built on top of the original Roman settlement (has a really long hard name that I will never remember). Our guide explained that Spain had been invaded by the Moors from Northern Africa. One of their final leaders was Wilfred the Hairy. When the Catalonionas finally defeated Wilfred, the man who killed him dipped his fingers in Wilfred's blood and ran them down his gold shield. This is where the Catalonian flag comes from...5 gold strips with 4 red finger strips between. The Catalonian independence flag also has a blue triangle with a star which they got from the Cuban flag. We walked up an alley on a hill and at the top was a memorial on the wall. It had the figure of Santa Eulalia... I think her story was at 13 years old she would not renounce her Catholic faith to the Romans so they tortured her in 13 different way. The last was to put her in a barrell with broken glass and knives and roll her down the hill we walked up 13 times. Some of the most narrow streets were in the old Jewish part of town called De Call. The streets were especially narrow there because they were enclosed in a wall and couldn't expand outward. I think the guide said all the Jewish people were expelled from the city in the 14th Century because the Christians blamed them for the plague. We stopped by a square that had two government buildings, Catalonian Government and Barcelona's Town Hall. The Barcelona flag has four squares, in 2 of them are the Catalonian flag and in the other 2 the St. Georges' cross which is also the flag for England. They both have this St. Georges' cross flags because they both have him as patron saints. On St. Georges' day the men give a woman a rose and the women give a man books (this part has something to do with Shakespeare). There are a few weird Catalonian traditions... one is a human tower. They will stack people up, everyone in the crowd has to help by leaning and pushing in helping the first floor of people get lifted off the ground. On the top will always be a child of 4 or 5 that has to climb all the way up the people. The record is like 9 stories. Another tradition we both enjoyed was in Catalunya the kids don't get gifts from Santa Clause, they get them from a log! A log with a face painted on one end is placed under the tree covered with a blanket up to its face. On the days leading up to Christmas children will feed the log and on Christmas day the, as the guide said, "the children will hit the log with sticks encouraging it to shit!" Then the blanket is removed to reveal all the presents. They also put a little toy man in baby's cribs. This little man is sitting on a toilet and is called "the shitter." This little man represents something about everything from the Earth returns to it. We also passed by pieces from the old Roman city wall and the Barcelona Cathedral. We got to walk around in the Cathedral's cloister where in the center they keep 13 white geese. 13 because of the age of Santa Eulalia and white for her purity. We went by Palau Reial were the Catalonian Kings lived. On the steps of this palace is where King Ferdinand and Isabel welcomed Columbus back after his 1492 trip to America. After lunch we went to Parc de la Cuitadella to see Barcelona's Arc de Triomf and the Cascade Fountain designed by Gaudi. We then went to the Picasso Museum which was really interesting to see things from his beginning paintings to last paintings. We spent a couple hours at the beach again before eating tapas dinner by the beach.

Friday was our last day. We first went to Parc Guell. This park was also designed by Gaudi. In the park were stone arches and a mosaic twisted bench. Under the area with the bench there were pillars and more mosaics. We climbed up to the top of the hill where there was a stone stairs and platform. I got a bit nervous standing up there with so many people and no railings. There were amazing views from up there of the city. In this park is also an awesome mosaic lizard sculpture. We then quickly walked down La Rambla which is a touristy shopping street. There were some interesting buildings on this road including Bruno Quardras which used to be an umbrella factory and now has decorations of umbrellas on it. At the end of the La Rambla by the beach is Monument a Colom, a column dedicated to Columbus. We then walked back to the street by the beach we got the first paella to have some more before spending the rest of the day again at the beach. This time at the beach we also saw a 70 year old naked man. It always seems to be old men that are naked wondering around.