Having no need for a car in Madrid, we took the Metro to the airport to pick up our car to begin our travels to Barcelona.  The landscape and scenery along the way were varied and beautiful.  The highways were excellent with little traffic.  The almond trees were in full blossom.

We drove to the Barcelona airport to park the car to avoid driving in the city.  It worked very well.  We were warned to leave absolutely nothing in the car while it was parked anywhere.  Our daughter inadvertantly left 2 2-Euro coins in the cup holder and worried (unnecessarily) about them.  No problem!  We took the bus to Placa de Catalunya and walked to our hotel near the cathedral.  We were pleasantly surprised that we had been upgraded to their sister hotel across the street.  As we left the hotel to find a tapas spot for dinner, we enjoyed watching people in front of the cathedral doing patriotic Sardana dances.  These take place on most Saturday evenings and every Sunday noon.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast at Starbucks and LaMie, we were off the see Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church).

It is spectacular, unbelievable, and like nothing else we had ever seen.  Antoni Gaudi worked on it from 1883 until his death in 1926.  Construction is still being done and is not expected to be finished for another 25 or so years.  We thought both the interior and exterior were beautiful, but like all art/architecture, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  The original design calls for 18 towers – 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, Mary, and the tallest one in the center representing Christ.  So far 8 have been erected – 4 apostles on each of the Passion and Nativity Facades.

The three facades chronicle Christ’s life – birth, death, resurrection .  We started at the Passion Facade by Josep Subirachs, not Gaudi, which depicts much symbolism from the Bible with figures carved in stark straight lines.  It’s difficult to believe this impressive facade is actually just a  side entrance.

Entering the church, it seemed as if the massive columns reached all the way to heaven where daylight streamed through little windows high above. 

There are stained-glass windows, a horseshoe-shaped choir halfway up the columns, an organ, and a spiral staircase.  No matter which way we looked, there were endless geometric designs.  An awe-inspiring crucifix is suspended above the altar.

To give our necks a break from looking up for so long, we took the elevator up 215 feet, climbed a few stairs, and got quite a view of the city and a close-up view of a few of the church towers. 

Returning downstairs we went outside and walked around to see the Nativity Facade.  This is the best example of Gaudi’s cake-in-the-rain style.  

The sculptures are ornately decorated with scenes from nature.

By now we were pretty hungry, so we found a nice restaurant with tables outside to enjoy tapas and sangria.  On the map it didn’t seem very far to Park Guell, so we started out walking, refreshed from our lunch.  What was missing on the map were the elevations showing the steep hills we needed to climb to reach the park.  It was quite a hike, but we enjoyed seeing the neighborhoods along the way.  Gaudi designed this park as a high-income housing community, but he was ahead of his time.  As a park, however, it’s very much a success.  Even though we were there on a rather cool cloudy Sunday afternoon, there were lots of couples and families enjoying the day and seeing what the street vendors had for sale.

From there we took a taxi to the harborfront which was also bustling with people.  The 200-foot Columbus monument marks the place where Ferdinand and Isabel greeted him on his return from his first trip to America. 

After a nice walk along a crowded pier, we started walking up the Ramblas toward Placa de Catalunya.  My son-in-law and I returned to the hotel somewhat earlier than my wife and daughter.  It had something to do with stopping (or not) at all the little shops along the way.

My wife and daughter ordered squid for dinner.  Rather adventuresome, but they said it was very good.  Anyway, our dinner was a nice way to cap off a very full and interesting day.

Since our daughter was limited on vacation time, we almost skipped Barcelona.  We were all very glad we didn’t since it proved to be one of our favorite places.