Day 3 - Afternoon - Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia....nothing quite prepares you for the impact of the Sagrada Familia up close.  The first picture is from a distance....not a great picture, but you can see the immense size of the cathedral.  Much of the exterior is covered with scaffolding and nets now.  The second picture shows what has been completed (the darker parts) and what is to be added (the lighter parts).  Gaudi died in 1926 when he was hit by a streetcar.   Since then and at an incalculable cost, sculptors and architects have added their own touches to Gaudi's dream.  It is financed by over a million visitors a year and is estimated to be complete by 2030.  

I will be 78 years old and plan to go back to see it completed !!!!!  

The last time Don and I visited Sagrada Familia was at least 5 years ago.  The inside was completely filled with scaffolding.  We could watch artists creating parts of the interior.  Very recently the interior was finished and was consecrated by the Pope.  I can't describe the emotions I felt when I walked inside.  I will tell you that I was moved to tears.  It is breathtaking...  Gaudi's design was inspired by nature.  The pillars are the trees with branches to the ceiling.

Amazing stained glass windows.  The light comes in like light filtered through a rain forest.

The style of the two sides is completely different.  Here is one....

The other side...

Here is our apartment...living area and two bedrooms.

After another busy day of sighseeing, we fixed our own tapas and enjoyed it on the terrace.

This is the view of Barcelona from our bedroom windows.

 Our last morning, we had to get up early, walk to the Metro and take it to the bus station...ride the bus to the airport, fly to Frankfurt Hahn and then drive home.  

 Our trip to Barcelona was such a special time.  Thanks to the Scherden family....for all Emily's planning, making flight plans and apartment reservations!  To Jason for driving us to the Frankfurt Hahn airport and helping us master the Metro.   Jackson and Grace are great travelers!  We had so much fun and made wonderful memories.

Barcelona - Day 3 Morning - The Best for Last!

 On our walk to Park Guell, we saw this man near our apartment.  He had a big sack of bread and was filling the bag with water from a spout on the corner.  We thought that was odd.  Then as we were walking through a park area all of the sudden pigeons started flying toward him.  He had a bag of nice, wet bread for them.  It was obvious that he did this regularly because they recognized him and flocked to him for their food!

Park Guell--originally conceived as a suburban estate is now an amazing park.  It is difficult to capture how interesting and beautiful it is in pictures. 

Here is the famous mosaic lizard of Parc Guell!

Here I am looking out the window of the gift shop.

So beautiful!  I love these mosaics.  Inside this area below were vendors selling jewelry, little mosaic lizards, and fans!  Grace found one she wanted, Jason was making a "deal" with the vendor and then suddenly all the vendors scooped up their goods and were off and running!  It took only moments for them to disappear.  Apparently it is illegal for them to sell there.  The funny thing is that minutes later they were back again.  We stood around and a few minutes and they were off again.  It was pretty entertaining.  Jason figured out that there was an undercover cop who would alert the police!  Grace was very, very disappointed that she didn't get her fan.  In fact, the fan man didn't run fast enough and was caught by the police.  Jason was watching the whole scene.  They took his bag of fans and he was bold (stupid) enough to try to grab them back from the police.  The policeman reached for his club and then the man ran.

This building is the former home of Gaudi.  It is now the Casa-Museau Gaudi.

The bench we are sitting on is VERY long and curves around a big open area in the park.  The mosaic work is just beautiful.  (Have I used that word before?)

After the park, we rode the Metro and walked to a tapas restaurant that Emily had read about.  There were cold and hot tapas....very delicious.  We also enjoyed a couple of pitchers of sangria.

Barcelona - Day 2

We woke up Sunday morning and went to the Barcelona Cathedral.  It was built in 1298 and is still the spiritual hub of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.   What a beautiful cathedral!

 Every Sunday at noon in the Place de la Seu in front of the Cathedral is  the sardanes--Catalonia's regional dance.   There was a band playing the music and it was so much fun watching groups of the Catalan people forming circles and dancing.    We felt we got a true taste of the Catalonian people and a typical Sunday afternoon for them.  

After watching the dancing we went inside the cathedral and it was amazing!  Don and I are borrowing the Scherden's DVD set of "Pillars of the Earth."  Reading the book helped me appreciate these cathedrals.

After the Cathedral, we walked through the Gothic Quarter past the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. It is a beautiful building and you can't really appreciate the wonderful mosaics from this picture.  We didn't go inside....I'll do that on my next trip for sure!

As we were taking pictures, these two ladies came walking down the street!  I think they are twins.  As soon as they saw Emily taking their picture, they put their hands in front of their faces.  I think they must get their picture taken often.  But...who can resist?  They definitely get attention in those outfits.  I think the must be very interesting women!

Another photo of the Museau.

 On the first Sunday of the month, the Picasso Museum is free admission.  We didn't really have this on our itinerary, but thought we would check it out.  Well, there were hundreds and hundreds of people in line.  I would pay the admission in a heartbeat to avoid that line!  We just enjoyed the sights on the street.

We spent quite a bit of time in this shop!  Terrible picture of me, but the only one we have of the store.  I bought some beautiful bowls and the Scherdens bought bowls, plates, and an olive dish.  I know we would have bought more....but we knew we couldn't get it in our luggage!  Since we were flying Ryan Air, we were sticking with only carry-on.

Here we are enjoying some mojitos and sangria on our way to the beach in Barceloneta.

I have never seen a more crowded beach!  It is 2.5 miles long and was a very popular place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

Jackson and Grace didn't know they were going to swim in the ocean, so that was a fun surprise for them!  They had so much fun.   The waves were really big and Jackson had a blast diving into them.  He is quite a swimmer and LOVES the water.

This is the apartment's kitchen.  It was quite small, but had everything we needed.  Emily did a great job finding the apartment on Housetrip.com.  It was within walking distance to Park Guell (Day 3) and a short walk to the Metro.  However, it was uphill from the Metro to the apartment and then 4 flights of stairs to our apartment!  We did get some exercise there!

This was our spot every night to sit and enjoy the terrace with a glass of wine.  We ate all our meals out here, too.  The weather was perfect for our trip....warm and sunny days and cool nights.

Barc