As my mom travels the world, strange unique places start to pop up on my bucket list that I never would have thought would be up my alley– like cruising through the Panama Canal (check, and everything I wanted it to be) seeing the Treasury in Petra (haven’t done that yet) and seeing the Sagrada Familia. After going into the local church in every town I went to in Italy, they were all starting to look the same– beautiful stained glass, Jesus, sculptures, the structure of the cross in the floor plan, but when I heard about this church, it made the short list of places I wanted to go. It’s been under construction for over 100 years and is meant to be finished in 2026- the centennial of the Architect, Antonio Gaudi’s death. My mom said there were stories on the walls and each side was different. With all this build up, I bought a deluxe ticket- not only entrance with an audio guide, but I would also climb one of the towers.
The view as I exited the subway:
The front entrance (which is actually the side)– the Nativity facade. The audio guide said that this church honors the most important parts of Jesus’ life– his birth, his death, and after his death. I thought it was odd that his life and teachings didn’t make the list. But anyway, this entrance honors Jesus’ birth.
Can you see the harp player?
I imagined the church to be big and winding and as overwhelming as the line to the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland (California- not Paris), but it was just a big church. With the usual structure. Or so it seemed on the inside. Oops! Now it’s time for the tower (they kept to a strict time table). I headed over to the Passion (which I chose for the word, forgetting that Passion in terms of Jesus refers to his death, but that decision turned out to be irrelevant. Visiting the towers was more about being up high and experiencing the structure than it was about which facade you were closer to) side, and squeezed onto an elevator headed to the top.
There are some grapes
Parts that are still under construction:
Here I am at the top! Looking out over barcelona:
The inside of the tower:
Narrow steps (those with backpacks or big bags had to leave them in a locker at the bottom. Now I could see why)
There’s Barcelona!
That’s where I was- where the red dot is in the middle
Looking down at the street and the park
I came around the bend and didn’t realize it was the same view!
Can you see the triangle building?
More parts under construction:
Looking down the spiral staircase. Sometimes everyone would stick their head in the middle to take pictures or look up– that was fun.
The spiral staircase from the side
I forgot my sharpie!
Nuoro is the town in Sardegna where I stayed.
Ok, back on the bottom, I went back outside to resume the audio tour. The big doors had little snails and lady bugs hidden on them:
Panorama of the inside:
The pillars are meant to look like trees- Gaudi was inspired by nature.
On one side the stained glass has cool colors
The other side has warm colors– to represent night and day and the planet (something like that)
This guy in the back was creepy. I couldn’t figure out who he was but he looks like death.
There’s Jesus up front!
This door is going to be the main entrance when the cathedral is finished. It has the same prayer in over 50 languages to represent the coming together of all the different cultures.
Here’s the other side– the Passion facade
There’s Jesus looking down from Heaven.
That’s the tower I climbed down!
Down in the basement there was a museum with models of the church:
Here’s a bigger one:
Check! I’m so glad I was able to experience that. It was both different and the same as what I imagined. It’s gaudy (and Gaudi) and overwhelming and beautiful and weird and simple and spectacular.
I didn’t know what I was doing when I was ordering my tickets. I tacked on a tour of the Gaudi House Museum (I was thinking it was a house he built, but it’s a house he lived in) and scheduled my tour for 4pm since I didn’t know where it was. Turns out it’s in Park Guell, where I scheduled a guided tour for Tuesday. That was inefficient. I had about 4 hours to climb up a hill that the map said was about 30 minutes away. So I meandered through a park,
found Park Guell and sipped on an expensive but delicious sangria,
Found the house, and they let me in early.
It was interesting and worth the 5 euro entrance fee, but I would have enjoyed it more without the hike up the hill and the waiting for hours (which was totally my ignorant planning). Here’s Gaudi’s bathroom:
Here is his garden:
Is that a Princess Ship?
Barcelona from the top of the hill:
Some pigeons sitting together
And there’s the Sagrada Familia!
