Not at all gaudy, Gaudi

Mar 19/07

We spent the day on the train from Madrid to Barcelona. It was a long train.

Mar 20/07

Today, I was introduced to a genius. Antonio Gaudi is one of the most incredible architects/engineers/thinkers/artists that I can think of. We went to see Guell Park first. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. His designs were shocking, and amazing and spectacular. I liked it, in case you didn't get that point. Unfortunatly, it's also almost impossible to describe. But I'l try. He loved mosaics and hated straight lines. Most of his buildings were full of sinuous shapes and forms from nature. I know this isn't doing much, but I've got lots of pictures.

After the park, which took hours more than we had planned, we visited Sagrada Familia, a church (also designed by Gaudi) that was started in 1882. It isn't done yet. Construction may be finished by 2025...if things go well. Again, completly indescribeable. Some photos are on the link below, and more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%c3%adlia

The church also took us a lot longer than planned, so by this time it was almost dark. We headed towards the old town, where we'd been told about a great restaurant. It turned out to be fantastic. Some of the best food ever. It was a tapas place, so we got to order lots of plates. We had 7 different courses, calamari, grilled mushrooms, spanish omlette, greek salad, sigh...so good.

Mar 21/07

More Gaudi, I'm very sorry I can't explain it, but it was really cool. We spent 3 hours exploring La Pedrera, and truly enjoyed the audioguide tour (FREE AUDIOGUIDES, my dream come true). The attic was full of models, display, diagrams and movies about Guadi, his works, and his inspirations. It was fantastic.

Our next stop, after 3 hours there, was his other apt building, Casa Batello, but it was 16euros to enter, and we could not afford that, so we bought post cards instead. Then we went to the Palau de Musica, another Modernist building, but not Gaudi. It was fully booked for tours, and we couldn't get in. Andother disappointment. Eventually we ended up wandering the city in dispair, trying to find a museum to visit. Finally we found one. The Museum of Catalunyan History. And it was fantastic. For only 2.50euros, we got to spend 3 hours learning the history of the area around Barcelona, and it was an excellent musuem. So good I actually had to leave a comment card with my praises (and steal some great ideas)

We walked along Las Ramblas, the main drag of Barcelona, kinda of a Whyte Ave-style street, lined with flower shops, artists, musicians...and petshops. Yup you can buy a lizard, bird, furry creature from a street vendor. Then went back to the same little tapas place for supper.

Mar 22/07

We spent our last few hours in Barcelona just wandering around, enjoying the old town. It's wonderful to see how here, when they have an old building (for instance roman walls, 100s of years old) they incorperate them into newer buildings, using the walls, not destroying them.

Our train to Nice was a rather circuitous route through the Pyrennese. We had 4 trains to take, including an overnight. Partway through train #2, we stopped. And then went backwards. WHAT?? This was not part of the plan. The ticket was definatly only ONE WAY. After a few 3-language chats with the conductor, and another guy, we were able to find out that there was too much snow to get through and we had to go back. Hmmm, definatly not what we had in mind. But not to worry, we were only going back a little ways to disconnect a few of the cars so we'd have more speed to get through. I don't know what their opinion of "too much snow" is, but I barely saw enough to cover the grass. Eventually, we got through, and changed trains. I had to walk through the skiff of snow in my sandals, and my poor toes were not happy about it.