Barthelona day 4: This whole city is Gaudi

Today was a day devoted entirely to one man, Antoni Gaudi.  The most famous architect of Barcelona, probably Spain, and pretty well known around the world.

We began with his most famous house, Casa Batlló. Much of the audio guide made mention that the house has no straight lines.  While not entirely true, the architect tried very hard to avoid any straight lines. It is a magical building. Floating, dreamlike, wondrous.  Like spending the afternoon underwater in the ocean.

Outside of the most famous of his houses

colored glass

You can buy a replica of the furniture. Pieces run in the 1500-2000 euro range.

Scales of the dragon or roof depending on if you believe the symbolism behind the building

View from the top

Chimnies

Arched hallway

The tiles get a little darker the further up you look. Some of that is based on the light of the sun.

Elevator

Wall flowers

back of the house

Doorway

Den

3D image of what the house would look like fully occupied

Balcony view

Window

Ceiling

Light

Living room

Lighting

Door

Door

Fireplace

Door

Staircase

We left the house an hour or so later to begin our walking tour about Antoni Gaudi architecture.  The tour covered many of the Gaudi structures in and around the Barcelona downtown area.  It also covered several other architects who were influenced by Gaudi and those builders of the same period.  We enjoyed seeing the progression of the Modernist movement in Barcelona and its ultimate demise, another Gaudi house.

Might be a Gaudi

St. George slaying a dragon. A popular Guadi theme based on the patron saint of Spain

The final Gaudi house. Very much hated.

The immediate movement once the Guadi style ended.

Tiles we ran across on our tour. This is what our first courese of Eat With was served on.

Might be a Gaudi

To finish the tour, we stopped at the Sagrada Familia.  We had to leave the tour early due to our entrance time inside the Sagrada.  It was worth it. I (Clay) am of the opinion that it is almost the perfect interior of a building.  It is incredible. My new favorite building on the trip.  I don’t consider the outside attractive by any stretch, but the inside will change your life.

The building should be finished in a few years.

The outside is covered in images from the Bible.

This side depicts the Passion of Christ.

Everyone we spoke with told us we had to visit the unfinished masterpiece. If there is only one thing to do in Barcelona, it should be visiting this place.  They were all correct.

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

clear windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

light from Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

From here we headed home before going to dinner. We tried another tapas place and it worked much better this time.  Part of that was the workers spoke English and you don’t have to order. They place the food on the bar, you pick it up, set it on your plate, and when you are done for the night, you hand them the toothpick, or kebab stick, or whatever wooden skewer affixed your tapas.

It was much more streamlined and less stressful for us.  We were able to eat without the panic of saying the wrong thing. A successful outing.