Oh My Gaudi

These past two days have passed jam-packed with touring Barcelona. We have walked miles and miles in and out of narrow Gothic streets, wide boulevards, high end fashion stores, and green parks. But the lasting image of Barcelona is definitely Señor Gaudi's mark he has left on the city.

Gaudi is a Barcelona-born architect whose curving, organic style is paralleled by no one. He avoids using calculations or blueprints or even straight lines and right angles in his work. It is bright, comfortable, and simply awesome. On Friday we went to see Casa Mila, a 4-story apartment building right on the main Passaig de Gracia.


On Saturday we went to the renowned unfinished Church La Sagrada Familia. Though it has been under construction for over a century it is not near finished. Hopefully I will be able to come back in 30 years and see the final product (I did see improvement even from 3 years ago). Someone described the church as an cake left out in the rain...and I couldn't describe it better. We got to take an elevator up one of the tall towers and walk down. It was amazing to be so high up and see all the amazing work up close and personal.


A few other highlights from the past couple days include eating (TWICE!) at Vaca Paca a fabulous all-you-can-eat buffet that I found the first time I came here...mmm delicious! Right next to our apartment we found this amazing Arc de Triomf.
We also went to a WONDERFUL Flamenco show complete with dancing, opera singing, Spanish guitar etc. Man, those dancers can sure stomp their feet, and the costumed ladies were gorgeous. Barcelona has cooled down a bit the past few days but the city is still teeming with people, energy and life.

So long!