Chuck's News: June 26, 2023 - Day 57

I’m excited about today’s afternoon activity. I have heard so much about Sagrada Familia over the years; it will be so cool to finally see it. The dream (fevered some might argue) of Antonio Gaudí, it has been under constant construction for over 120 years. We have visited tons of cathedrals that took hundreds of years to build, but this is the only one I know of that is currently under construction and with any luck will be finished during my lifetime. We had reserved our timed entry tickets over a month ago. We are scheduled for a 2:45pm entry. With a morning free, we planned to do Rick Steve’s’ other walking tour of Barcelona, this one of the newer area of town, the Exiample. Newer is a relative term. It was built about 150 years ago, new when compared to the core of the city which was built about 2000 years ago.

We were up, breakfasted with scrambled eggs and toast prepared in our apartment and out the door by about 8:30am. I used the app "City Mapper" on my phone to navigate the bus and subway system. It is amazingly well done and makes finding your way around an unknown city a breeze.

Our apartment is less than 40 yards from the Placa Espanya subway station where lines 1 and 3 are available. We rode Line 3 to one stop north of Placa Catalunya on the Ramblas to begin our audio walking tour. Earbuds in, phones on and we were off. We learned about the Eixample neighborhood and how it was layed out to allow more space for the residents compared to the cramped Barri Gotic area. Wide streets on a perfect crisscross pattern with each intersection an octagon, meaning the building on the corners have blunt rather than sharp corners facing the intersection. It is amazing how this simple code for construction opens up the street and makes them light and airy.

We saw Gaudi’s Mila House and his Casa Batllo as well as just got a feel for the area. Very cool and completely different than the Barri Gotic area we visited yesterday afternoon. I also began to understand the economics and politics of Gaudi’s work. In essence, he was the Michelangelo of more modern times. His patrons were the rich industrial barons of the day. They wanted to build houses that stroked their egos and made them stand out from their poorer neighbors or from their rich aristocratic friends. They gave Gaudi an open ended budget to create for them the most outlandish homes possible for their day. Granted, Gaudi was amazing at his craft, but fueled with unlimited resources and time and encouraged to let his imagination go wild, he was set free to create the buildings we see today.

We stopped at a McDonalds to get a big soda, hoping for 1€ drinks. Ha! €3.39 each! While sipping at outside seating Sally started a conversation with an elderly man and his middle aged daughter from London. Politics came around and we had fun comparing Trump to Boris Johnson and other topics.

Cokes empty, we completed our tour and then took the metro back to our apartment for lunch. What!?! you might say? You didn’t sample the Spanish food! You made tuna sandwiches in your apartment away from the life of the city? May I remind my gentle readers that we have been in Spain for 57 days and have eaten plenty of Spanish cuisine. Saving a few dollars is a better idea at this point. We did indeed have tuna sandwiches with potato chips and an apple. We even closed our eyes for a few minutes and caught a little nap before returning to the subway to travel to Sagrada Familia. 2 stops on the green line (L2) and 5 stops on the purple line (L5), a walk up from underground and there looming over us was the towering Sagrada Familia.

We walked over to the park on the east side to sit at a bench and take a look. Not the best viewpoint as the sun was now slightly in the west and looking up at the cathedral was blinding. Sally sat next to a late 20’s or early 30’s blond from Latvia and in typical Sally fashion soon had her life in detail. Specifically, she wanted to tour the cathedral but had no entry ticket and none were available. We had an extra that was Becky’s and offered it to her for free. She tried to pay us for

It, but we refused and told her to pass it forward. Our pass was for a senior citizen so we were a little trepidatious as to whether they would let her in. We decided we would all go in together at the proper time. It was only 1:30 and our entry was set for 2:45. We agreed to meet back at this bench in an hour.

Sally and I spent an hour walking around this amazing construction, taking pictures, talking to people and getting Coke (temp was about 87° with 57%humidity) so we were sticky and hot.

When we met up again, Lina was there and ready to enter. We were thinking up ways to get her past the guards- she was our granddaughter, she was young looking for her age, etc. As it turned out they didn’t care. They just scanned the three QR codes on my three pdf tickets and we were in.

We spent about three hours touring the church. I won’t describe it here. You can look it up online. Suffice it to say, it is incredible, both inside and out. Truly a work of art in the form of a building. Victor Hugo described architecture as a method of communicating that died with the invention of the book. Gaudi revived it with this spectacular building.

We had also purchased a tower tour, not really knowing what that was. We were on the passion side of the building. We got in line and we’re soon whisked quickly in an elevator to the top of the inside of one of the towers. This allowed us to see closeup all the parts of the tower that were too high to make out from the street level. The objects made of tile capping the towers and more. To get down you follow over 600 steps descending the tower in a spiral that puts you back in the church. It was also spectacular.

We sought out a grocery store and bought supplies, then retraced our route back via the metro to our apartment for dinner. We were both pretty tired, but there was a city just outside our door waiting to be explored.

We rested a bit, then down the elevator and out the door to explore the site of the 1929 World Expo, the 1992 Summer Olympic site and a portion of the park called Mountjuic. A series of three outdoor escalators transport you up to the palace. From there a great view over the city is to be had. A street musician playing a piano was entertaining a good sized crowd on the steps and benches at the top. We walked over to the ‘92 Olympic venue and watched a YouTube video of the opening ceremonies to orient ourselves to the venue.

We walked back to our apartment, arriving after dark (10:30pm). Another wonderful day in Spain!!

Gaudí’a Casa Mila

Gaudí’s Casa Batlló

Western side (Passion Side) of Sagrada Familia

Straight on. When we toured the tower we were above the highest bridge that connects the two right most towers.

The east entrance to the transept.

The forest of pillars that branch like trees as they support the roof.

Western sunlight streams through the stained glass windows illuminating the interior. Blues and greens on the eastern side. Oranges and reds on the western side.