A visit to Barcelona, Espana

We went for a nice trip to Barcelona and Girona. I flew in Tuesday, Karen flew in on Friday, then we both flew back the following Monday. The food was fantastic, the architecture was crazy eye-candy and the pace of things in Spain was really comfortable.
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Being our second trip to the country (went to Sevilla in June... and actually to the Canary Islands in March!) means I get to duplicate the Spain patches on my backpack ; )
.One of my first days in Barcelona I took a train east to Figueres to see the Teatre-Museu Dalí before Karen arrived.
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Dali built this museum himself it in his home town of Figueres, Catalonia. He built it over the town theater that was bombed out and left demolished after the Spanish Civil War.
. This whole museum was set up in a very peculiar way. Walking through the different areas it was so hard to tell if I'd seen everything. Dali designed it this way intentionally.
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I use to reproduce these paintings on graph paper in college. Seeing the originals after having re-done them in college was really incredible. The detail in Dali's paintings is just mind blowing.
.This really isn't an optical illusion... but isn't what you'd expect either. Dali did a few different things using reflective cylinders. What a mind this guy had!
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Here's a picture of us through a mirror having lunch with Biz (one of her many great suggestions in Barcelona!). She brought us to some really amazing restaurants... thanks Biz!
.This picture was on the roof of la Pedrera. It's the Catalan name of a house designed by Antoni Gaudi and built between 1906 and 1912. I can't imagine how people felt about it that long ago. It's wildly futuristic even by today's standards!
. These are the most photographed chimney pots in the world. We saw so many postcards that look just like this picture.
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And how about that for a vibrant blue sky!!! Look at the shadows cast onto the "necks" of the chimneys... you think those profile face shadows were intentional?

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We loved the idea of us waiving to our own shadows.

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The weather was gorgeous for our stay. It was 24 degrees C at 10pm. That's better than any single day we've had in Ireland in a year! This trip was about the only few days of summer we had this year. (can't really complain though!)
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The Palau de la Musica is a concert hall built in Barcelona between 1905 and 1908. The lonely planet guide said it was something not to miss. The book said, "...see a show, any show!" So we got tickets and saw a full orchestra playing Sinatra tunes.

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Here's a pic from inside the Palau de la Musica. Karen loved the musician sculptures coming out of the walls behind the stage. The place was really something to experience.
.Here is Gaudi's Casa Batllo. He renovated it just prior to starting la Pedrera in 1906. Hard to photograph in full because of the trees out front, so here it is from the side.

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In Barcelona they affectionately call this place the bone house... you can see why. Unreal to think Gaudi renovated this place between 1905-1907.
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Sunday we went to la Sagrada Familia, also designed by Antoni Gaudi. They are still working on it today. I had to photoshop out a ton of cranes and scaffolding (hope you can't tell too much).

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This is a drawing of what it is intended to look like once finished. Gaudi knew it would not be finished in his lifetime, so he made a lot of models and drawings for his successors to use as guides.

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Look at the big tall cross on the top of the drawing above. Then look at the above-above picture and try to imagine how tall this thing should be someday. MINDBLOWING!!!

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This is inside the basement of la Sagrada Familia. It's the workshop where Gaudi and his designers built plaster models of the cathedral in different scales. Construction of this cathedral began in 1882.

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Gaudi worked on this project for over 40 years, and exclusively for the last 15 years of his life.
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Gaudi was a very religious man. This is on the entry way of the cathedral. The numbers form 130 different combinations of the number 33... the age of Jesus at his death/ascension.

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The over-the-top detail in this thing is just astounding. I can't believe they actually went ahead and decided to build build it! I'm so glad we made it here to see these works of art.
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Here we are in the Plaça del Rei in the old town. This is where Christopher Columbus greeted King Fernando upon his return from the new world.
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This is the Plaça de Sant Felip Neri housing a dark chapter of Spain's history. The pockmarked walls remain as a memorial to those executed by firing squad here during the civil war. Gave us the creeps a little.
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We flew out Monday night from Girona, so thought we'd spend the day there before leaving. Here is the cathedral built with different architectural styles between the 11th to 18th centuries. .

The oldest part of the town holds a maze of tiny medieval streets. We thought sepia tone was appropriate on a street like this.