Barcelona - Architectural showground!

Want to stand out? Live here...

After three and a bit weeks cruising from one Mediterranean port to another, we arrived at Barcelona and it was time to disembark the ship for the final time. Making every moment count we were among the last to leave. Though, to be fair, we were actually looking for our Mt Etna friends who had kindly booked a hotel at a special rate for us due to their connections.

For me, Barcelona was home to four things - Gaudi's stunning cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, the 1992 Olympic Games, tapas meals, and the Nou Camp (where footballer Lionel Messi and his team mates dazzle audiences and opponents alike). We were two decades late for the Olympics and it was the off season for football, so that left Gaudi and tapas - which is kind of funny because tapas is all about little selections and Gaudi is all about largesse!

Cathedral on Mt Tibidabo

We did visit the Nou Camp as part of our 'hop on, hop off' bus tour but the only thing I was dazzled by was the price - 30 euro each just for a tour of the stadium!! So we did our own self tour... of the merchandise shop, which was actually very impressive with eleven life sized manikins dressed with the first team's jerseys and full uniform. I suppose if you're a player you could just stop in here before each game to see if you are in the starting side...?

Before exploring Barcelona I was only vaguely aware of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia from the odd picture or story. We were pleasantly surprised that there were more Gaudi buildings for us to visit, along with Gaudi-inspired street lamps and park benches! But the jewel in Gaudi's architecturally-designed crown was definitely the Sagrada Familia. Construction started in 1882 and the cathedral was opened in November 2010.... But they still haven't finished building it! That's 130 years and counting! When you see it, you start to appreciate why it has taken so long.

Gaudi didn't skimp on the back facade either...

For those that care, the building is about 170m high and has several 'facades' depicting different themes. It has massive doors with 3D words on them - the words grace, hope, and love stood out most to me. Officially, the style is a mixture of Gothic, art nouveau, modernism and something else I'd never heard of before. I'm no architect, but that seems like an eclectic (or perhaps, eccentric) mix! But that's Gaudi, he was one of a kind.

The inside was jaw-droppingly amazing - fascinating, massive, and full of great colour! It'd be a tough gig preaching in this church because the craftsmanship and design of this amazing structure would outclass all but the most inspired and well-structured sermons.

Please bear in mind that the size of the building (inside and out) makes it almost impossible to capture both the intricate detail and overall architecture in mere photos.

We wandered around for quite some time, just absorbing the play of the light, the likeness to Elvish buildings in Lord Of The Rings, admiring the curved walls, and feeling dwarfed by its size and the creativity on display. It got me thinking about our capacity for creativity and commitment and why hadn't I contributed something amazing to the world yet... Then I remembered that it has taken them 130 years to build it and they still aren't finished... so I felt a little better.

If you think Gaudi went a little over the top with his design and it's a bit too much... well, you are not alone. Some people think the word 'gaudy' comes from Gaudi, but it's not true. There is evidence of the term gaudy being used as far back as the 16th century, well before Gaudi was born. Anyway, enough with the language history lessons... Back to the travel stories...

I've also decided that tapas area a rip-off... It costs the same (or more) than a normal meal and you get less. Sometimes it's not even real food - it's just a collection of snacks. So now whenever I feel like eating bar snacks instead of dinner, I just say I'm having 'tapas'. We also realised that when we have kids and serve up 'leftovers' for dinner, when our kids say, "not leftovers!" We can say, "no, it's tapas!". All thanks to the Spanish.

Rainbows of fruit smoothies everywhere in the markets

While we were in Barcelona, we also took a crazy and epic long walk up a big hill. It was totally by accident on our way to the Tibidabo look out. There was a cable car, but we decided to save a few euros and walk - after all, we had walked up many hills on our adventures and were getting quite self-confident in our walking abilities. As they say, pride comes before a fall and by the time we got to the top via various trails, roads and moutain bike tracks) we were completely done in! To make it worse, when we went to buy a one way cable car ticket to get back down the mountain we discovered that it was around 10 euro to go one way and only 12 euro to go two ways! Foiled!

Despite this, the walk was good for us and the view at the top of the mountain was excellent - we looked out over Barcelona and out to the Mediterranean.

There was an old church at the top of the mountain and to the side of it, an amusement park (??!) Choosing to laugh instead of cry after our ridiculously difficult unplanned long detour, we took this photo and chuckled at the possible caption: 'Has your church sold out?'.

We ducked inside the church, but only glanced around because there was a service underway. We found stunning mosaics. They had rainbow shimmers and covered most of the inside walls and though they had seen better days, they were still impressive - so much so that from a small distance they looked like paintings!

We left Barcelona with its laid back lifestyle, beaches, and overpriced 'leftovers' thoroughly glad we'd been able to spend a day and a half there.

Next stop Morocco...

Jahda and Amanda