After breakfast, we headed out for the Gaudi designed Parc Guell. We did stop after about one block to admire an apartment building by Gaudi, called La Pedrera or Casa Mila. In 1996, this was not open to the public (it was really a private apartment building in use), but we saw that there are tickets for sale now and people were standing on the roof with a gift shop on the ground floor. We elected to continue on to Parc Guell, as was our plan, but did stop to take a photo (not a great one):
We had about a 45 minute walk to Parc Guell, but Barcelona is wonderful for walking. Rob had researched tickets this morning, and he recommended that we buy them online to guarantee our entry. This would turn out to be an good recommendation and decision. Note that in 1992, tickets were not even required ... times change. We arrived at about 11:30am, an hour before our scheduled entry, and immediately noted that the earliest tickets available were being sold for 3:30pm -- smart thinking, Rob! We walked around some of the areas in the park that are outside the restricted area. The park is a large esplanade with beautiful benches made of shards of broken pottery. There are two houses constructed, too. The whole area was intended to be a housing development here in Barcelona, but it did not come to fruition. Only the two houses were built, and they were actually intended to be gate houses, not actual homes. Anyway, it is simply unique in its design and a lot of fun to look at. That said, it was so full of people, even with the limited access, that it became very difficult to take pictures, but here are a few of mine (Rob took a lot more):
My pictures don't really do the sight justice, unfortunately.
From here, we were continuing our Gaudi themed tour and walked south to Gaudi's massive project, La Sagrada Familia (the holy family). We were trying to remember what this looked like in 1996 and can remember a few things: the inside of the cathedral was still open to the elements, and the towers were complete (maybe). We also remembered that we were told that there was no funding to complete the project, and donations were being solicited. As we approached the site, it is clear that funding has been obtained. This is a major construction site with multiple cranes and lots of scaffolding. It is also obvious that a lot has been built. When completed, and it seems likely at this point that it will be, this will be a massive cathedral -- much of it is still not visible at this point. Here is my photo of the facade:
It is hard to describe this design, so I probably won't attempt it. It is also obvious that in the past 19 years this has become even more popular with tourists. Busload after busload of tourists passed us. In five minutes, we counted close to ten (guess that is where the money is coming from). We decided not to enter; we're feeling a little crowd averse at this point. It was now after 2pm, and we preferred to keep on with our walking tour.
No major sites to see, just strolling. Our walk took us past some modern buildings, including the National Theater and a large one that looks like a giant pickle. Then we came upon a large space with an Arch of Triumph that is really nice. Some event has either taken place here or is being set up, so there is a lot of activity that prevented us from getting a really good photo, but here is the best one I got:
The bottom of the arch is cut off in the photo, so that the big trucks parked there were not included. From here, we just headed back to the hotel; it was about 4pm.
After a little rest, we went out for an early dinner (must turn in early tonight for our flights home tomorrow). We revisited the tapas place where we had lunch yesterday called Cerveseria Catalan. Tonight we ordered a variety of tapas, some that we had eaten yesterday like the asparagus and mushrooms and the chicken croquettes, plus some that were new to us. Here is a photo:
We had some new ones like beef skewers (really good) and shrimp skewers:
The star of the show was a dish called cod (bacalao) three ways:
One (on the right) was cod in a zuchini flower and was fried. The other two preparations had tomato and eggplant. All three were absolutely incredible! In fact, it was so good that we ordered a second dish of it!
Time to call it a day ... what a wonderful vacation ... tomorrow we go home.
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