Today would be a marathon walking day, starting with a twenty minute stroll to La Sagrada Familia. This was preceded by Loni downing a couple of Immodium AD’s to settle down her innards so that she could eat a basic breakfast. They seem to be working. Since she never complains, its hard to know how she’s really feeling. You’d think after 50 years together that I’d have a clue. You’d think.
So, today is the big Gaudi extravaganza. We had purchased tickets in advance online by using the Hotel Colon’s very public and probably very unsecure lobby computer, as we had no way otherwise to get our tickets printed out. I’ll be watching our credit card bill carefully. We got there a little early, and had to wait for our assigned time (9:45am) in order to present ourselves at the gate. Lines were snaking everywhere. While waiting, we examined the scale model that they had on display. In the left shot, the side facing us is the northeast “Nativity” façade with the three portals I described before (unfortunately the bottom is cut off in this photo). The main nave runs from the left to the right. The Nativity façade is the end of one of the transepts crossing the nave. At the left is what will be the southeast-facing main entrance – the “Glory” facade, with those swoopy arrow-cap structures, which have yet to be built (shown better in the right photo). The Apse (or altar end of the interior) lies to the right end of the left shot. Got it?
We got admitted through the gate and paused before going inside to take some closer shots of the Nativity façade. The carvings really are exquisite. The Magi with their gifts in the left shot, and the Nativity scene at right, with Mary presenting the infant.
When you enter, it’s hard to decide where to look first. The whole interior is a phantasmagoria. We purchased some audio guides, and proceeded to wander about, mouths gaping, trying to see what the voice was describing. The first thing that hit us was the rich color of the opposite (west) side’s stained glass windows by Joan Vila-Grau, supposed to represent the light of Jesus.
The longitudinal naves end in the apse which can hold 15,000 people, with another 1,500 in the choir loft. This shot (below) is with my back to the unbuilt main entrance, looking to the altar. Note a couple of things for later reference: the bell-jar shaped light being cast in the upper center, with a golden “skirt” of light within; and at the bottom, the suspended gold canopy.
The bell-jar light is actually cast by a hyperboloid skylight over the main altar, 75 meters above the floor. This light, enveloping the golden “skirt” (my term), represents God’s light over all. I thought this was the coolest design touch of the whole place. Pure genius. Look also at the wild columns, branching like trees and sporting wings of leaves.
A bit more dazzling, perhaps, are the golden canopy and the figure of the crucified Christ, the cross seemingly floating as He ascends to heaven.
Well, that’s worth the price of admission.
The bizarre, broccoli-stalk columns end up in gorgeous vaults high above.
The place is a stunner. Safe to say there’s nothing like it anywhere. A riot of shape and color (and seething humanity).
For a long while, we just sat in the folding-seat pews and took it all in while listening.
If we turned around, we’d be looking back to the as-yet unopened main entrance, mostly finished on the inside, but wholly undone on the exterior, which will be the “Glory” facade. Inside, this end is much more traditional and, well, boring. Those lights at the bottom are glass panels that do not open, but which will become the doors.
The doors will be inscribed with the Lord’s Prayer in bronze in fifty different languages, with the Catalan version in the center in relief. A plug for the home town.
In a similar fashion, the doors of the Passion façade contain the gospels of Matthew and John describing the last days of Christ’s life.
For the Passion façade, Gaudi had intended to dramatize the abyss between the birth of a child and the death of a man. He died before translating that into his own imagery, and in 1986, Josep Maria Subirachs, an artist known for his atheism (!) and his hard-edged and geometrical style, was commissioned to finish the Passion façade. It’s quite a contrast to the carvings of the Nativity façade. In the collage below, the center shot shows the portal; at left, Christ bound and the Last Supper; at right, the Judas kiss.
A curiosity is the numbers box to the left of the Judas kiss. Each row and column adds up to 33, Christ’s age at his death. There’s more to the façade (and the Passion story) to the right, but it was covered by construction netting so no photo. Over to the left of all this stuff is a separate carving of a mounted centurion piercing the side of the church (the body of Christ) with his spear. Below that, a close-up of the crucifixion. Powerful, muscular stuff.
In the above pic, Subirachs paid homage to Gaudi, inserting him as the figure to the left of the helmeted Roman soldiers. The faceless figure (yes, it’s facing us) in the center is St. Veronica, faceless because her story is considered legendary, not historical fact (um, unlike the rest of the Bible?). She’s holding the veil she gave Christ to wipe his face with on the way to Calvary. It was said thereafter to have been imprinted with his likeness. Hmm. Looks more like ET to me.
Done with the Sagrada, we started the long walk down to the Barri Gotic, traipsing through some lovely areas like this park and this tram station. There actually are some tranquil areas in this crowded city.
We found the restaurant we had eaten in the day before, the Taverna del Rosa, and had another go. The food was good, but I swear the portions given to the locals was a LOT more than we got for the same dishes. Salad and paella made for our main meal of the day. Afterwards, we decided to get lost, and plunged into the maze of streets in the Born Ribera section. We happened upon this delightful shop where the owner made hand-sewn stuffed toys and finger puppets. We couldn’t resist, and Loni is holding a set of puppets portraying the characters from the Wizard of Oz. Happy whatever to grandbaby Isla!
Since the Maritime Museum was open today, we trekked back across town and went in to see. Turns out, most of the place is closed for reconstruction, so there was only a minimal charge. Good thing, cause there wasn’t a lot to see. The best was the reconstruction of the Royal Galley that was part of the fleet that defeated the Turks in the 1500’s.
By this time we were a bit woofed, so we headed back to the B&B. Parking jam, Barcelona style. Oooh, we miss the scoot.
Now, all day long we’d been seeing tables set up all over the city with people, young and old, selling roses and books. What the ??? Everything seemed to be getting more festive as the day went on. It turns out that we had stumbled upon the jackpot. This was Barcelona’s best day of the year – April 23, St. George’s Day – the local Valentine’s Day! Six million Catalans going giddy from dawn to well after dusk. When Sant Jordi slew the dragon, from its spilled blood sprouted a rosebush, from which our hero plucked the prettiest blossom for the princess. Hence the traditional Rose Festival celebrated in Barcelona since the Middle Ages. In 1923, the festival merged with international Book Day to mark the near-simultaneous deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare, on April 23, 1616. Thus, men present roses to their belles, and the gals give a book to their beaus. Awww. We got back to the B&B to find:
Well, the rose anyway. The bathroom laundry was ours from the morning. Thanks, to our hosts Ivan and Marc. We flaked out for a few hours, to prepare for the even longer walk this evening to the Montjuic for the Magic Fountains! The what? Throughout the summer, from Thursday to Sunday, a collection of waterfalls and fountains along the promenade between the Placa d’Espanya and the Palau Nacional are lit up at night with colored lights and choreographed shooting sprays, much like the Bellagio in Las Vegas, only classier. I shot gobs of pictures. The walk from the B&B to the Placa was almost two miles each way, and the city was lively the whole length. Once we got to the promenade, we sort of said, “meh,” as the fountains were nice but nothing spectacular.
That’s part of the Palace at the upper left. So, we were sitting here, people watching, when we heard a collective gasp from up the Palace way, and up there was a big fountain starting to erupt.
We worked our way through the crowd to get closer to the action.
The displays went on for nearly half an hour without a break. We were saturated! 
Finally it ended. Our show started at 9, but there were additional ones at half-hour intervals through the evening. We made the long, slow slog back to the B&B, past the bullring
and the still-active city. An orange, a slice of bread, and we were ready to put an end to our (courtesy of Loni’s Fitbit) 31,164 step, 13 mile walking day. Ooofffzzzzzzzzzz.
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