Barcelona

Parque Guell - originally designed as the centerpiece of a sixty house upper-class community in Barcelona. The housing development never materialized, but the park remains as one of Gaudi's more well known works.

Gaudi's house in Parque Guell

Intricate detail in Parque Guell - this is ceiling of the columned terrace.

Famous Lizard at the lower entry to the park.

"Gingerbread" houses at the entrance to the park

Sagrada Familia

Gaudi used nature as his inspiration in all of his work. Note how the columns branch like trees and the ceiling tiles look like leaves.

The organ was designed by a renowned organ maker from Barcelona. Much of the work that has been done since Gaudi's death has been done by Catalan artists and various artists from other regions of Spain.

The church is designed in the shape of a cross. The head of the cross is where the alter sits. The other three points of the cross are the main entrances each representing different parts of the life of Jesus. This is the passion facade.

Note the stark, almost cubist design found on this facade symbolizing the sorrow of his death. This shows one of the nine scenes depicting the last days of Jesus' life. This shows one of those who judged Jesus washing his hands as his wife on the right hand side of the photo walks away in sadness and disapproval as he has judged an innocent man.

The divinity facade is the other of the three entrances that is complete. It was the first to be done and Gaudi actually oversaw some of its construction. (The third - to be the Glory facade is under the early stages of construction.)

You can take an elevator to the top of on of the bell tower. From there you can see a lot of the current construction as well as views of Barcelona. You can also appreciate the intricate detail that is found throughout the structure.

"What is the truth," and many other sayings are inscribed on this, the main door of the passion facade.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. Built in the same modernist style of the early 20th century that made Gaudi famous. This was built by another modernist architect, Lluís Domènech i Montaner.
More about him here if interested: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19cultured-barcelona.html

The tour was kind of a bust and the who place is under renovation and perhaps someday will be worth the 10 euros apiece that we paid for the tour. They recently stopped using the hospital and so it is only now that they are restoring it

Placa Catalunya at the top of Las Ramblas. This is the view from our hostal room.

Las Ramblas is a busy pedestrian street filled with tourists and street performers.

Placa Reial - plaza in the Gothic district of Barcelona with restaurants surrounding the square.

Tram to the top of Montjuic. Montjuic is a hill in Barcelona home to parks, museums and a lot of the 1992 Olympic sites.

Montjuic Castle at the top of the tram.

Main entrance to the Olympic Stadium.

Olympic Stadium. Surprised that it really did not seem that big.

Tapestry created by Joan Miro displayed at the entrance to the John Miro Museum

Famous Miro work outside. Um... apparently no photos inside the museum. Lame.

National Museum of Catalan Art. We didn't go in, but building looked cool.

Tram ride to the top of Monserrat - a monastery that is about 1.5 hours outside of Barcelona.

Us before our admiration of churches wore off.

Inside the church.

Right behind me in this photo was the sacred Virgin Mary found in a cave nearby (very John Smith sounding story). Anyhow, that was apparently the most sacred part of Monserrat. Oops. Didn't realize that until after we walked by it.

Not sure what we are looking at.

Famous choir boys. They perform for 15 minutes at 1pm each day. Not sure what they do the rest of the day.

Marta and her friend Rick's book.

Entrance to one of the two famous apartment buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi. This one is called Casa Mila "La Pedrera." Both were phenomenal. Gaudi worked with the concept of total art - meaning that he not only designed the structures, but also the doors, furniture and more.

Note even Gaudi's influence on the iron work that adorns the outside of the windows.

The arched "attic" area of Casa Mila. Was a functional place for tenants to do their laundry and also provided a way to trap heat in the winter months and release it through windows during hot Barcelona summers.

Roof of the Casa Mila. Nothing was left without his artistic touch.

Chimneys and water towers on the roof.

Natural light was a key element in the apartments as well. Each of the apartments had two courtyards that allowed natural light to flow into all of the tenant's complexes.

Outside of Casa Mila.

The following photos transition to Casa Batllo. This is the ceiling of the main room of the first floor of Casa Batllo. Gaudi was contracted by a wealthy Barcelona family to renovate this apartment building. One of his only renovation projects I believe. The wealthy family occupied two of the floors of the building and the remaining floors above were apartments.

View from the main room of Casa Batllo onto Las Ramblas.

Difficult to find straight lines in the place.

Looking up one of the two opening in Casa Batllo that provided the natural light.

Note how the tiles get darker towards the top. This was to balance out the light that would enter. The darker tiles at the top would absorb more of the light than the lighter ones at the bottom. This, in theory, allowed for a more even flow of light and color in these openings.

Gaudi used arches in almost all of his works. He used weighted strings upside down to formulate the arches in his head - much like a necklace hangs forms a natural arch on someones neck.

Rooftop of Casa Batllo. Smaller and less impressive than Casa Mila. (And it was overcast.)

More arches. Almost appearing as the ribs of a whale.

Looking through one of the glass pieces that served as a railing. Apparently was trying to create the sensation that you were underwater.

The detail of the doors and railings was just amazing.

Outside of Casa Batllo. You can kind of tell how Gaudi just built out on the existing structure on the lower floors.

Casa Batllo. The patios almost look like Carnival masks. Some speculate that was Gaudi's actual intent since the Carnival parades did pass by the house on Las Ramblas.