Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Barcelona, Spain - Day Four

Today was all about Gaudi the architect.  We started our day at Sangrada Familia.  This is a large unfinished Roman Catholic basilica.  It was designed by architect Gaudi and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You absolutely must have a ticket ahead of time to enter the Basilica.  It is a timed ticket, and one of the most expensive tickets we purchased for this trip.  It is well worth it, but please know that even in October, this was the busiest place in the city, so be prepared.  

It was amazing to see.  The front of the church is the only thing Gaudi saw finished in his lifetime.  (he was killed in the early 1900s when he was hit by a tram).  We were told that this church expects to be completed in the year 2026 - just in time for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.

There are no other words for this place other than massive.  It is absolutely stunning, and everywhere you look there is something unique to see.  An audio guide was included with our ticket (We didn't take a guided tour - decided to do this one on our own), and it explains the history of the building and the work going on very well.  The inside is incredible and unlike any other church I have ever seen.



















We did walk past the ring where they hold bull fighting still.  We looked into it before we arrived, but no events were happening while we were in Spain.  Plus the kids really didn't want to go, so we skipped it.



Our second stop was Gaudi's Casa Batilo.  Origianlly built in 1877, it was bought by the Batilo family in 1900.  The Batilo family wanted the house to be unique, so in 1904 they hired Gaudi to transform it. The family lived in it as a house until 1940 and then the children turned it into apartments.  Now it operates as a museum.  You do need to buy tickets for a timed entrance.  It is a large building, but it can quickly get crowded.

The housde was quite beautiful and well worth a visit.  The house is completely empty now, but the audio guide was fantastic.  It comes with a phone like aparatus that you hold up in each room to show you what it looked like when the house was owned by the family.








Cool building we pased on our walk



When we were looking for "quirky" things to see in Barcelona, Mat found this one.  This is on the outisde of a building that used to be a monestary.  This was a hole where babies were deposited that were not wanted.  Parents would put the baby in the hole, and the board would flip and deposit the baby inside the monestary.  We tried to put our three in there, but they wouldn't fit




Our last stop was a huge open market of La Boqueria.  It was rows and rows are delicious foods to look at and to buy.  We had a great time getting dinner here this evening.






We found this huge cat on our walk back to the apartment




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