We had a nice relaxing start to the day, with no plans other than a 3:15 self-guided audio tour of the Gaudi designed Basilica, Sagrada Familia.
After breakfast we headed off to meet up with Paul and Christine for some Barcelona ramblings. They had been here a few days so we're pretty familiar with the street layout and where to go to get off the beaten track a bit.
We walked through the old city, the gothic area, with it's narrow streets, buildings with narrow balconies leaning into the streets. Catalunya and Barcelona FC flags fly everywhere as do clothes hanging out to dry.
The people around here seem to take pride in its appearance - it's very clean, the buildings are well maintained and vertical gardens run up the outside of many of them.
After a bit of wandering, we stopped for a coffee in a nondescript cafe, which turned out to be a great decision. Best coffee of the trip so far! And bloody good pastries to go with it.
Feeling refuelled it was off for more ramblings. We found the locals to be really friendly with loads of "Hola's" as we wandered around. We came across several musicians playing in the streets, all of them really good. There was one particular group that was playing that had drawn a large crowd; a three-piece playing banjo, piano (full size) and trumpet in the middle of a square. They were absolutely fantastic, so stayed a while to listen to them before continuing with our ramblings.
We ended up in a food market which was clearly a favourite with the locals. Fresh meat, fish, vegetables, pastries, savouries, sweets - you name it, it was all there. Great place to wander around and absorb the sights and smells. There were several places where you can just sit up at a bar while they cook whatever you have ordered. These we hugely popular with long queues of people waiting for their turn. We opted to stand around and munch on falafel pita, which was delicious!
After lunch it was time for us to go on the tour of Sagrada Familia - Wow!
I remembered being in awe of this amazing building when we saw in back in '88, but today it is so much better.
The construction of Sagrada Familia started in 1882. Gaudi took over the project as chief architect and engineer in 1883. He aknew that he would die before the building was complete, so he created the plans to allow future architects to have their own interpretation of what he was wanting to achieve.
The inside of the church was only completed in 2010. The then Pope, Benedict XVI, declared that "now that the architectural work on the interior of the great church of Sagrada Familia is complete, it's dedication is an offering to God for all time. For its scale and its artistic merit, is it is now also a Basilica." On 7 Nov 2010, mass was held in the church by the Pope to celebrate its dedication.
It's hard to describe the Basilica Sagarda Familia - to see the intricacy of the work inside and out is quite remarkable. On the outside, right around the church, there are incredible creations recognising Christs life, from birth to death. The four tall, narrow bell towers, capped with a typical Gaudi look, are simply breathtaking. I can't describe these, so pictures will have to tell the story.
On the inside, the stained glass work is stunning and specially designed to let in the 'perfect' amount of light. The colours that flood the main body of the church change as you move around the interior.
The pillars that support the ceiling (45m at its highest point) are brilliant in there design. They are different heights to give the feeling of a forest. Looking like tree trunks, they start of as wide, vertically ribbed (that's the best explanation I can think of) sections perhaps 1.5 metres high. As the column grows, the ribs on each new section get tighter until at the top the columns branch out like a palm tree to add further support.
Work is still going on today and is expected to continue over the next generation. Incredibly there are still more towers to be built that will surpass the height of the existing four!
After a couple of hours of walking around the Sagarda Familia, it was off to meet up with Chris and Paul for drinks and dinner. After a refreshing lager for the lads and Sangria for the girls, it was off to the old Arenas de Barcelona - the main bull ring of Barcelona.
Bull fighting is banned in Catalonia now, so instead of pulling the old bullring down, they kept the facade around the outside of it completely in tact and stripped the inside completely. They added a roof to the entire structure and turned it into a shopping precinct with restaurants on top of the roof. Brilliant use of this beautiful building.
We sat there eating and drinking until it was dark so we could watch the very cool coloured water fountains display, Fira Montjuic which was directly across the road. We had also been here back in 1988, but then there was no water display!
After that, we said our goodbyes as we probably wouldn't be seeing Paul and Chris again, and headed back to the hotel for the night.
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