La Sagrada Família

Or, what you'll receive on a postcard if anyone ever sends you one from Barcelona.  Or, Barcelona's most emblematic architectural icon.  Or, the most visited tourist site in all of Spain.  Or, Antonio Gaudí's most ostentatious work.

The Temple Expiatori (Expiatory Church) was started in 1882 and was finished in... wait... nope, it's still not finished.  If you ever do receive a postcard of La Sagrada Família, the photo on the front is a lie.  It is not the picturesque version with lovely clean, blue skies you'll see.  But instead there are huge construction cranes sticking out of the top.  In fact, most of Barcelona is littered with cranes.  It's the city that's always changing, perhaps.  Or in the case of La Sagrada Familia, it's the church that's never finished.  They say it will be completed in the next 10 to 20 years, but you never know...

After visiting the Jardins del Laberint D'Horta in the morning, Aileen and took the metro ride to the Sagrada Familia stop (it has it's own metro stop!)  As it was a Friday in the early afternoon, it was incredibly crowded.  We wanted to pay a little extra to go on an elevator to the top, but we would have had to wait an hour and a half!  So obviously that didn't happen, but we did get the 10,50 euro student entrance fee.

The cathedral was overwhelming.  However, we couldn't explore all the nooks and crannies because they were all roped off with construction tape.  There is so much detail on this architectural unfinished masterpiece, though, that we barely even noticed.

The inside is made to look and feel like a forest.  There are super tall columns that branch out at the top.  Gaudí didn't believe in the straight line because it can't be found in nature.  See my pictures and marvel at this incredible building!  (But of course, it's not quite as fabulous as being there yourself).

"Looking back on his childhood, Gaudí, now an old man, wrote: With the flowerpots, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, cheered by the clucking of the hens, the song of the birds and the buzzing of the insects, and with the mountains of Prades in the distance, I captured the purest and most pleasant images of nature, that nature that is ever our Mistress."

"As a great observer of nature, Gaudí was familiar with the way that cosmic movements together with the power of gravity generate a series of spiral movements on the Earth that are also found in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.  Attracted by these phenomena, Gaudí used the spiral in structures and decorations on most of his works."

"As Gaudí acknowledged, the structure that holds up the inside of the Temple naves is like a tree, with the trunk, the branches and a canopy of leaves as the ceiling."

"After many years of research into the helicoidal growth of plants, one of Gaudí's most unusual innovations was to adopt this movement of growth for the columns of his buildings."

"Paraboloids, hyperboloids, and helicoids, constantly varying the effect of the light, have their own wealth of nuances."

"Gaudí studied the buds, spikes of cereals and grasses that were growing around the Temple; he had enlarged models of them made that would later be sculpted in stone to become the rails and pinnacles that we can see today on the Sagrada Família."

"Nativity Façade: This façade is a triumph of life, expressed through the birth of Jesus.  Building began in 1892 and it is the one Gaudí left at the most advanced stage.  In 1926, before he died, he saw the St Barnabas bell tower crowned.  The other three, dedicated to Jude, Simon and Matthew, were finished in 1930."

"The central doors of this façade, made in bronze by the sculptor Josep M. Subirachs, contains the texts of the gospels of St Matthew and St John, which recount the last days of Jesus' life."

After a whole morning and the beginning of the afternoon of sightseeing, it was time for lunch... a backwards lunch, of course!  We walked by a cupcake shop (Lolita Bakery) that I always walk by and we went in.... and shared a slice of super yummy cake.

And then burritos for lunch near Barceloneta.  (Not quite Spanish, but good nevertheless).

Overall a great day, and for a souvenir, I got a little sunburn on my arm.