Gaudi's Barcelona

We've been doing our favorite European thing here, wandering the streets. I guess we did drag the kids to the Picasso Museum, but afterwards we wandered the streets home. Barcelona was the home of the "Modernista" movement in the early 1900's and it seems every street has an interesting building. Gaudi was the craziest of all the architects and his buildings are a treat to see. Noelle describes them as wet sand castles and Allie says they are "playful". Our first stop was the Casa Mila, a large apartment building. Gaudi left no detail undecorated, even the chimneys and rooftop equipment are styled.




Our next stop was the Casa Batllo, built for a rich merchant and privately owned. We were delighted to discover that since our last trip here the interior is now open for touring.



A tour of the Casa Batllo is a must for anyone who enjoys building things. There isn't a straight line in the place and every square inch was touched by a craftsman. The woodwork, ironwork, plaster, tile and glass are all over the top.






I can't imagine what it would cost to build something like this today. If I ever become a famous rapper I'm not going to cover my teeth in diamonds or buy a gold-plated Hummer, I'm building a Gaudi-like Casa Hamilton.

We walked home along the beautiful Passeig de Gracia, an elegant street where the who's-who of Barcelona all built themselves beautiful Modernista buildings to out-do each other. In our humble opinion, Paris' Champs Elysees is almost cheesy compared to the Passeig yet for some reason you never hear about it.

When you're down the street from a Gaudi building, you better come up with a good storefront to attract people. Noelle found that even she was too tall for the kids' door on this toy shop.





Today we spent most of the day at Gaudi's unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral. It's still under construction and will probably be finished in a few hundred years. The kids gave it two thumbs up and both agreed that it was their favorite cathedral in all of Europe.



Jolene and I were both amazed at how much has been completed since our last visit. The inside was dusty, dark and full of construction debris and now it is light, colorful, and seems nearly finished.











It's really hard to describe how amazing it is but when the kids want to sit in church for two hours and sketch the altar and columns that's a good affirmation. Jolene and I have found that some of our European memories from 13 years ago don't quite stack up to the realities that we find when we return. I guess we sort of "romanticize" about the past and find ourselves saying things like, "Didn't you remember that village being prettier," upon our return. We have found the opposite to be true with Barcelona and it feels even better than before. Maybe it's just because we started our last week in Europe and know that in one week we will be back in the USA.