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A day of Gaudi

By Ken Broman

It is a truth of any trip to Europe that something you really wanted to see will be under scaffolding. And sure enough when we got to the Sagrada Familia there was scaffolding everywhere! What a bummer!

We got there about a half hour before it’s opening time of 9am and all ready a small line had formed out front. Upon entering we immedietaly headed for the elevator on the Nativity Facade side of the cathedral. It whiskes you up one of the completed bell towers from where you can get an impressive view of Barcelona and a pretty up close look at some of Gaudi’s actual work.

The inside of the cathedral is very impressive in it’s incomplete state. It’s chaotic and noisy and a hive of workmen in active construction. What is complete is amazing. They hope to complete it in a couple of more decades.

We ate some mediocre vegie payala in the shadow of the cathedral and then took the bus up to Parc Guall, another Gaudi construction. It was packed with people and tacky crap vendors all congregating at the entrance and on the terrace overlooking the city. We didn’t linger long as it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to squeeze in the Picaso Museum as well.

I enjoyed this Picaso Museum much more than the one in Paris. The progression from his early representational works through to his early forays in to cubisim is very well laid out.

The weather here remains slightly overcast and in the low 80s. Very pleasent.

For dinner we took a little break from Spanish food at Udon which promised noodles & fun.

Tags: Barcelona, Gaudi, picaso

Posted in Journal Entry, Spain | 1 Comment