Barcelona (Sept.22-26)

This is going to be a long post because our last 2 days in Barcelona were amazing... and very educational (I know, you´re supposed to have fun on vacations, but we slipped up and learned a few things ;) Barcelona is part of northeast Spain called Catalana and the language is Catalan which is almost as different from normal Spanish as Italian. And BTW, Spanish in Spain is different from in Mexico. The Catalanians have always thought of themselves as separate from Spain and there was even a civil war in the late 1800s (which Spain won). We hope you enjoy the photos and you can see larger versions by clicking on the pictures.


Barcelona is on the sea and is a large version of San Francisco. It is huge. The general center of town is probably about the size of San Francisco and everything is accessible by the underground subway. Many of the streets are very wide with sidewalk cafes on almost every block. Stopping for tapas is easy and always includes a beer.

The city has 2 well known favorite sons. Around the world, Picasso is the best known. He was born in northern Spain and moved to Barcelona as an adult where he did a lot of his painting. The Picasso Museum has his early works from his high school and university years. They are traditional paintings well before he created his now well known style.


But in Barcelona, the most popular man is the architect Gaudi. He began designing and creating houses, apartments and other official buildings in the early 1900s and was far and away the most unique architect of his time (perhaps in the entire world). These photos are of Casa Mila (La Pedrera). It is an apartment building he designed and built which has no straight walls anywhere on the 5 floors. And the roof is curvy (not flat) with sculptures. We got to tour an apartment and the roof, and I would live in it in a minute (although I probably couldn´t afford it).


Gaudi´s biggest undertaking was the Temple of the Sagrada Familia which he started around 1920. He died before he finished it, and it is still under construction by architects who are following exactly what Gaudi designed. It is simply undescribable. You just have to see it. The largest church structure I have ever seen except for the Vatican. Inside, it is over 200 feet in places and on top of some of its spires are fruit in all their colors. Everything he included signifies something significant. This is truly one of the unique things in the world... and we never heard of it before coming to Barcelona.


We also visited the Palau De La Musica Catalana which was constructed to house the Barcelona corral singers in 1908. It is now the premiere music hall in the city. Again, you cannot describe the building. It is another awesome creation (not by Gaudi since he was too young at the time).


To top off our trip, the 3 day End of Summer Festival was going on while we were here. Out last night here is the last night of the festival. So we went to one of the largest plazas in the city, together with over 100,000 other people (no kidding) to listen to music and watch the fireworks. When you see 10 minutes of fireworks, you generally are pleased. If you see 15 minutes, you are fulfilled. If you see 20 minutes (which I am not sure I have ever seen), it is awesome. WELL, Barcelona lives by another standard. We were overloaded with music from around the world and 40 minutes of non-stop tremendous fireworks. You simply looked up with your mouth agape and watched something unique. The crowd was almost always silent except to applaud. You´ll just have to see the video I took to understand what it was like. Seeing 100,000 people crowd together and then disperse is really something. Everything was peaceful and everyone was pleasant. Young and old alike will not forget this evening.


We took this picture in Gaudi´s famous apartment building, which was furnished with pieces from the period of 80 years ago including children´s toys, to show our grandchildren. We hope you like them Kayla and Ryan.

We´re off to Provence, France in a few hours, but I just had to write this blog while I was still in Barcelona.