Day 9

the "Arc de Triomf" in the centre of Barcelona on
our way to the cathedral sagrada familia


The cathedral inside - still under construction since 1882
by Antonio Gaudi



The colums copying nature....

One of the window fronts...

The Threefold aspect of the outside design

- Nativity, Passion and Glory

This front shows the nativity story

The turtle carrying one of the big pillars

The Roman soldier killing all new born

The Passion front with the four bell towers

the view from Gaudi's Guell park over the city

Mosaic seat detail at the Guell park

Enjoying an ice cream at the Gaudi's Park

The tiled lizard

Gaudi's designs at Guell

Balconies in the street....

Thursday, 9th Sept – 9th day of the trip

Barcelona

The day started at 8.15 when it was breakfast time. The breakfast here was different to what we ate in Paris. Not many people found it very appetising, so before we made our way to the Sagrada Familia we made a quick stop at the markets for some fresh fruit. Stefan told us that where we were headed was not very far, although looking at the map we knew we were in for a long day. We walked down to the pier and it was here that we got our first chance to see some European water.
After an hour and a half of walking it felt like we were going around in circles, and if we hadn’t been then we had done one huge loop. It was close to 2 hours when Stefan looked lost and decided to get the map out.
‘Guy’s its about 200m up this street’.
We found out that Stefan calculating the distance to a destination was again incorrect.
The sun was quite hot and there were many sore feet, we arrive at the Sagrada Familia. What an amazing piece of architecture, even though it is still being constructed.
We went inside and relaxed in a theatre and watched a short film about the Sagrada Familia. It was very interesting and gave us background information that I hadn’t known before this visit.
Walking through the Church was an amazing experience. The colours in the windows were incredible and every piece of detail in the church was easy to look at. The walk to get there was well worth it.
A short break for lunch and we were off again. 10 people went back to the hostel and 7 of us made our way to Guell Park.
It was a short but steep walk from the Metro to our new destination but it wasn’t to bad as there were escalators in the middle of the streets. At the top of the hill we had a view of the City of Barcelona. We then journeyed down the other side of the hill and ventured through some more amazing structures by Gaudi. This architecture was not like any other I had seen, but it was so captivating.
Another ‘short walk’, as Stefan would put it, we were up the top of the other side of the hill and were looking for the lizard structure.We were refreshed with an icecream and continued walking upwards. We then found out it was down the bottom and had to walk even further down then where we were before.
The lizard was not very big and was very crowded so it was hard to get a close picture of it, but I am glad we got to see it, even after all the walking involved.
We spent a few hours at Guell Park and made our way back to the Hostel on the Metro. Im glad I decided to make the treck to experience some amazing artwork.

Noelle