Russell thinks I should call this blog entry "How small can a city of 1.6 million people get?" More about that later.
We had a "Gaudi" tour this morning. I won't explain who Gaudi was -- if you want to know more about him try Wikipedia. Oh, snap.
First stop Casa Battlo.
Our tour guide said his favorite word regarding Gaudi is "peculiar". His work was peculiar and the Casa Battlo is a fine example of what makes his work peculiar -- the organic shapes, the symbolism and the interesting color schemes.
Reptile spine staircase
After our tour we took a brief bus ride to Sagrada Familla. The church is undergoing a lot of work in hopes of finishing by the one hundredth anniversary of Gaudi's death in 2026. What it means for today's visitor is that a good portion of the building is shrouded in scaffolding and/or netting while other parts of the building (the recently completed bits) are jarringly (new word?) different (in color) than other parts that were finished decades earlier.
The interior is however totally finished and quite remarkable. It's a different experience to be in such imposing church that is also modern in style. I found it quite refreshing.
So, we meet the group. And it's all guys. Gay guys. Who have just traveled to Barcelona by boat. Which boat? Oh the Celebrity Equinox! And where are they from? Why Delaware of course! And what did they do today? Oh they visited Casa Batllo. And Sagrada Famila. So strange. This is what Russell was referring to when he suggested a name for this blog entry. This plus the fact that we have continued to bump into people who were on our ship in the streets (including this one totally "Thinks-they-are" gay couple that we purposefully dissed because they had earlier rebuffed our attempt to get to know them -- and now they want to get to know us? Oh no, I think not.)
So what about the tapas tour? Well we had a lovely guide named Claire and we visited three places. One was a cheese store then two places for tapas. Small, out of the way places we would never have found on our own (let alone known what to order). It was a fun evening (aside from the plate of fried sardines that was placed directly in front of me!) but probably not worth what we paid if you think of it strictly in terms of amount/cost of food versus cost of ticket. Still we met Claire and she was lovely and she had agreed to go out for dinner with us on Thursday night and she is going to take us to one of her favorite places so that should be fun.
Alright that is enough blogging for one evening and probably way more than you want to read. I'll tell you this blogging is definitely cutting into my reading time (but I don't mind because you all have been super sweet and encouraging and I appreciate it).
It's great to see the photos of the Sagrada Familia - I was last in Barcelona in 1989 and the Sagrada Familia was far less completed. Such a great city for wandering around - enjoy!
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