5.21.2008

Barcelona, May 21st

So today we got up like normal and went down to breakfast. The breakfast is a buffet, and it just wonderful. However today when we were done, they made us sign the bill, which they didn’t make us sign yesterday. So we don’t know if it was free yesterday and not today or what. Whatever it was we aren’t going to eat there tomorrow! Anyhow we got back up to the room, relaxed for a bit and decided what we were going to do for the day. We decided to go to the Sagrada Familia which is “sacred family”. I was not prepared for the impact of the Sagrada Familia up close! It was started in 1882 and in 1883 the famous Antoni Gaudi became the architect for the enormous project. He spent close to 40 years of his life working on this project and still today they follow his designs. Close to his death he living in the basement of the temple and dedicated all of his time to his work. He claims that all of his family and friends were already dead so it gave him full time to spend on his work. He died in 1929 when he got hit by a bus L. The structure is claimed to be completed in 2030. They have workers working on it day and night. If you want to know more on this marvelous structure click this link (you should, its amazing!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia. We decided to get the audio guides for the Sagrada Familia since we wanted to know as much about it as possible. They were marvelous and told us so much about the building. After walking around and through the temple for about 2 and a half hours we decided to go up into the lift that they had. We went up into one of the main spires and it was amazing! We go to see the top of the temple which is still heavily under construction. And on the way down we got to walk down in these tiny spiral staircases. Bry got dizzy on the way down and it was a funny sight! Once we got down from the lift and returned out audio guides we reluctantly left the amazing building and headed for another point of interest. We got to the Casa de les Punxes, and realized that it was closed to the public so we got to just walk around it. Then we were headed of to the Palau de la Musica Catalana which was a fairly modern style building. Once we were done with that we realized that we were starving! So we began heading home. We probably walked about 2 hours today! So we got back to the hotel area and went into the grocery store and got some yummy sandwiches for dinner and picked up some pastries for breakfast tomorrow! Today highlight was definitely the Sagrada Familia! I was wondering why the Catholic church doesn’t promote the Sagrada Familia more, and then bry pointed out to my attention that the temple doesn’t have any side areas for saints like all the other Cathedrals that we have been in have. Usually the Cathedrals walls are lined with chapels dedicated to various saints. The Sagrada Familia however focuses just on The Sacred Family, and no saints. So that is why there has been controversy over the building in the point of view of the Catholic Church I am assuming. Anyhow time for dinner and bed, goodnight!












































































































































































































Casa de les Punxes


Casa de les Punxes
Palau de la Musica Catalana

We reached 330 pictures taken in Europe!!!!!