Category: Portugal/Spain, Fall 2018

For the third time, we met up with friends who happened to be in Spain or Portugal while we were. Very cool. Our friends John and Katie Fones were here for New Years, so we connected with them to tour La Sagrada Familia. That’s John in the background making a funny face he has no idea is about to get published. His ever more eloquent wife is in front of him, actually listening to the audio guide!

The above is a depiction of what Sagrada Familia will look like upon completion. They are hoping to complete it on the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi’s death, in 2026. I don’t think they are going to make it…..they still have 10 towers to go, including the largest one in the middle!

Here is a shot of the church from the exterior (actually from our Airbnb). It’s an important viewpoint, as the view from inside the church is oh so much different than that from the exterior.

I have to admit, I was not sure what to expect upon entering. Even though I knew about the exterior for years, I had no idea what the inside would look like. I was very surprised! Blown away even! This is without a doubt the most beautiful church….and the most beautiful building…..I have ever walked into!

Gaudi pulls in influenses from nature. The support columns for the church resemble trees on purpose.

Gaudi loves his church to be full of light.

This is a very crowded place. I have read that it is the 2nd most visited site in the world. #1 is the Great Wall of China.

As part of our ticket we were able to go up into the Nativity Facade. There are two facades that are currently assessible to tourists (Nativity and Passion facades). You have to pick which one when you buy your ticket. This is a source of much consternation on the internet. Bottom line is the Nativity Facade was the one completed by Gaudi, and has a bridge connecting two towers that you can cross. The Passion facade is one tower. Most Gaudi purists say Nativity. Here are some shots from the facade. Gaudi felt a lot of a church’s ornamentation should be on the outside, not the inside.

It’s interesting to me that many of the fanciful objects you can see from the towers in the facade can not be seen from anywhere else. He expected people to climb around the facades so they could view these.

A couple of shots inside the towers.

John and Katie on one of the abutments on the tower. The background didn’t turn out all that great, but in the one where it did, John had this look on his face that said “did I leave the stove on at home?”. Still, better than the first photo in this post.

Another exterior shot. Love the fruit piled up!

A shot down the spiral staircase.

Here is a shot of the Passion Facade.

The doors leading into the church from the Passion facade are very cool.

A final picture of us inside this gorgeous Gaudi masterpiece! This place is so cool!

Here is the Passion facade lit up at night.

You cannot come to Barcelona and NOT visit Sagrada Familia! It is truly amazing. Trust me, I’m an athiest…..would I direct you towards a church that wasn’t worth visiting?

For two days we immersed ourself in the world of Antoni Gaudi, and will likely see a little more of his work before the week is finished. If you have been to Barcelona, you already know him, as he is their most famous citizen. Gaudi was a Catalan architect who fully embraced the Modernist style. His buildings are all one-of-a-kind masterpieces, and he has a very distinct style that is easily recognizable. His passions in life were architecture, nature, and religion, and he displayed these passions in all of his works.

I first heard of Gaudi in 1987, when the album “Gaudi” was released by the Alan Parsons Project. I’m a huge AP fan, so when this album came out I purchased it immediately just like all the rest. Ever since then I have wanted to visit La Sagrada Familia, the subject of the first song on the album.

Our first Gaudi stop was Casa Batllo, a house that he completely renovated in 1904, and is today a museum. This particular museum is very popular, so either go early, or pay extra for the “skip the line” tickets.

This is a view of the crowded line outside from the first floor windows you can see in the above photo.

Gaudi is all about curved walls, lots of natural light, and colorful glass.

He devised a lighting and ventilation system that runs from the ground floor to the roof, and on the sides of this system, within the house, are these vents that he apparently copied from the appearance of fish gills. You can open and close the wooden vents to meter the exchange of air.

Here is the inside of the lighting and ventilation system.

There were two of these shafts within the house so that every room could get natural light and ventilation. On the lower levels he used lighter colored tiles to allow for more light reflection. In the upper levels he used darker blues to keep the sunlight from being too bright.

I can’t imagine how much a door like this would cost to have made today. These types of designs were on all of the doors. Gaudi even designed the door handles himself.

The rooftop is an amazing variety of Gaudi goodness. Fletcher is standing next to some of the chimney’s for part of the house.

Another set of chimney’s. Thinking maybe I need to do this to our chimney back home!

This is supposed to be the back of a dragon.

More chimneys next to the dragon. This place has a lot of chimneys! Since Gaudi liked to do a lot of curved lines, he ended up using a lot of fragments of cermic tiles, using what would otherwise most likely have been thrown away. He was a strong believer in using as much of the building material waste as possible.

They have a spot where they take a photo of you on a balcony along the facade (the camera is on a long selfie stick) so that they can have you part with 20 euros or so. Anything for a buck! Nope…skipped it. That’s for the people that wait in line after paying to get into the Harry Potter bookstore.

Here is a view down the facade from the roof. The balcony in white was made using mostly scrap metal from the project.

There was a large renovation project going on, right in the middle of the tour area. They have devised these virtual visual tour guides where you can hold up your audio guide and see what the room is supposed to look like when it’s completed. It also helps to identify certain features.

We watched this lady painting for a few mins. No way I could paint those fine lines like she did!

Be warned, the tour is very popular and the house is very crowded. My photos don’t show the crowds inside, but that was by design…..I don’t want a ton of photos with people performing fake poses for Facebook. My absolute favorite is where the girl looks back over her shoulder at the camera. Maybe a little lift of the leg?? Move that hair over. Oh my, you are soooo sophisticated!

Thanks….I’ve seen enough of that to last a lifetime….and then some.

Next up….La Sagrada Familia!