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Barcelona, Spain

Despite the rythmic tap tap tap of rain against our window, we rugged up and took the underground and then a bus to Gaudi park which is nestled against a hill suburb outside city central. Gaudi designed this as a trendy residential park but it never took off due to being “too far from the action” for the yuppies of the day. He lived there himself in the orange house pictured for many years till he started the cathedral, where he bedded down in the workshop.

The park is beautifully landscaped and full of tasteful terraced streets (never built on) with views over the city to the sea. It is lush with vegetation and fragrant flowers like gardenia and orange. He had walking areas, park areas, and clever drainage via fancy viaducts Whilst he is known for his architecture he was also an engineer and I think a fantasy artist also at heart.

At one stage the heavens really opened up and it thundered and poured for a good 15 minutes. I have never experienced such torrential rain whilst being outside in my life! The water was running down the hill like a grade 4 rapid! We huddled under our one umbrella under some trees all alone until it eased enough to continue our walk. Most photos in the park were taken from under the umbrella, but I am pleased to report that our expensive gear is working fairly well down to my gortex walking shoes and we both were dry on inside layers – albeit a bit wet on sleeves and hems.

The house he lived in was a display home for what he envisioned others to be like and it basically sits alone in the lovely landscaped park with the only other features or structures being the ceramic park play area, viaduct walkways, and gingerbread houses. This green oasis is a real contrast to the multiple ugly apartments that are the suburban landscape of Barcelona. You can see the modern architecture close to the gingerbread houses and whilst they look yucky to me, this is actually an above average neighbourhood.

Next visit was the church that Gaudi designed but never completed due to his untimely death by tram. He probably would not have finished it in his natural lifetime anyhow as projects of this scale take so long to build. He lays at rest in a crypt in the lower part of an attached church.

On route we had a little unplanned detour. We realised this when we popped our heads up like meerkats from the subway and there was no cathedral in sight – the district didn’t look so flash either. Vernon had got the wrong station – we were at Sagreda not Sagrada! No worries, we popped underground again and found the right line :-))

The Sagrada Familia is a modern style cathedral whose outside of multiple towers (some yet to be built including a crowning tower of 500ft) looks as though it was fashioned by throwing big splotches of mud or clay onto a potters wheel, spraying it with a bit of water and allowing gravity and motion to form shapes with minimal input from the potter. I think some of his other work is very organic like that too like his Casa Milla and viaducts.

On one side he has the nativity scene which is almost overfilled with traditional detail and the other side is a direct contrast of super modern style large sculptures depicting Jesus’ betrayal and death. The later is still being completed. Vernon and I preferred this side and felt the minimalist style suited the internal theme of a modernista rain forest very well. The blocky sculptures look like something out of Star Wars and are almost alive like stone giants (I am sure they were looking at me and moving). I took quite a few photos of them as I love the juxtaposition of stone being so alive!

The inside is breathtaking; it is so big, airy, light and neck clicking high! Gaudi’s design of a forest brings light from towers and domes filtering down through the canopy. The towers have vertigo inducing coiling spiral stairs. Due to the weather we could not go up them which was a shame (yeah right).

Both attractions were worth the visit and its a shame that modern Barcelona does not have this Spanish creativity in their modern planning and construction.

As we were fat attacked out from pigs ears and such the night before we ate light at a salad bar buffett for €11 each near the cathedral. It was great to have a bowl of tomato and bean soup then pile a plate with delicious raw and blanched veges including whitlof, red leaves, asparagus, green beans to mention a few. Included was pizza and pasta although that was ho hum. Another stimulating arty day despite the rain and cold.

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