All Gaudi, all the time

With regret, we flew from Greece to Barcelona and stayed there for four days. Our trip was pretty much a Gaudi extravaganza so that's mostly what I have pictures of. Overall, except for the things we went to see, Barcelona as a city didn't impress me much. I know I'm very alone in this opinion (except for Marika!) but I found it unexpectedly grimy and, major deterrent, the men were borderline threatening.

Just to be clear, we were not actually threatened. What would happen was as a guy passed you on the street, just when he got into your peripheral vision, he would swoop in, right next to your ear, and '¿cómo estás?' I know I still have a North American sense of personal space and male behaviour...but I have been living in France for 3 months and had just come from Greece; neither are known as bastions of feminism! And I have never experienced the kind of continual harassment that we got in Barcelona.

However, Guadi is fantastic. On our first day we went to Parc Guëll, which he designed.

There's a house in the Parc where Gaudi lived for a time and is now a museum. I really like this furniture set. There was a matching mirror.
The next day, we went to see the Sagrada Familia, a massive cathedral still under construction. They began the building in 1882 and so far, 8 of the proposed 18 towers have been built. The shortest 8. The tallest, the Jesus tower, will be 170m high and crowned with an enormous cross. When you see how the Sagrada Familia already towers over the Barcelona skyline, it's hard to believe what it will look like with the rest of the towers.

There are going to be three facades, the Glory, the Passion and the Nativity but so far only the latter two have been finished. Mostly finished.

The Passion:
The Nativity:
Next stop was Casa Batlló which was an apartment building designed by... you guessed it...Gaudi!
The audioguide was very careful to explain, over and over again, how Guadi had been inspired by the natural world. The staircase curved like the backbone of a great prehistoric leviathan, there were numerous references to kelp, the catenary arches (an arch designed by Gaudi) were like the ribcage of a mighty beast etc. etc. etc.

Finally, on our last day, I ventured up the funiculaire and gondola to Parc Montjuïc which was a fun ride. I spent most of the time just walking around and enjoying the views but I also visited the Fundació Joan Miró, a museum dedicated to Joan Miró. Miró didn't capture my heart but there was a temporary mural exhibition which was very cool. The museum had got a number of artists from around the world to create murals on the walls of different gallery rooms. You'd walk through room after room of huge, colourful, creative murals, made of all sorts of fabrics and in every different style.

View over Barcelona from Parc Montjuïc.
Now I am back in Lyon. Marika stayed with me for a week after Barcelona (hence the delay in posting these pictures) and we recuperated in the comfort of my apartment. She's back in England and I'm looking forward to my next trip!