Gaudi and the Gothic Quarter

The first night we were in Barcelona, we didn't have anything special planned; I knew we wouldn't get any sleep on the overnight flight. That evening we took a short walk around our hotel in the Gothic Quarter, admiring the architecture of Barcelona Cathedral and the other old buildings in the area. Then, we ate a three-course meal at the hotel restaurant. I began with a delicious meat cannelloni, followed by a not-so-delicious boiled calamari, and ending in crema catalana (creme brulee). To be fair, Barcelona has excellent seafood; I, however, prefer fried seafood with loads of ketchup, so the boiled calamari (and octopus I later had) were an adventure, but not one I would prefer.

Our first full day in Barcelona, we began our journey with Casa Batllo. This was one of my favorite things in the whole city. I love Antoni Gaudi's work, which was the primary reason I wanted to see Barcelona over Madrid. The tour of Casa Batllo was special because no one lives in the house anymore, which makes it possible to walk through most of the house. (You can walk through more areas of the house with upgraded tickets.) The audio guide included quotes from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea because this house is filled with underwater, aquatic references. The stairwell contains balconies at each level overlooking what I can only describe as a hole between the walls. The hole leads up to a skylight, and the windows in each of the walls leading up to the skylight gradually get smaller and smaller, making you feel as if you are underwater and slowly approaching the surface. Gaudi was strongly inspired by nature, and you can find in his architecture curves, waves, and spirals that represent things like mollusk shells and butterfly wings. You'll notice below the mollusk shell ceiling, the mushroom fireplace alcove, the owl faces on the balcony railings, and the turtle shells in the doorways. There's a beautiful patio with colorful mosaics and flowerpots built into the walls, and a roof with towering shapes that resemble "the dragon's back." This was inspired by the legend where Saint George, Barcelona's patron saint, slayed a dragon and rescued a princess. The roof of Casa Batllo was intended to overlook the entire city of Barcelona, including Gaudi's Sagrada Familia; unfortunately, we could not see La Sagrada Familia from the roof, and assumed the rest of the city had built up around it. We made our way back down to the gift shop next, but were routed into the "Gaudi Cube," a room with a screen in the walls and ceiling that surrounded us with Gaudi-inspired, psychedelic artwork intended to let us "see into the mind of Gaudi." (We thought this was a bit ridiculous, but at least it was only a small part of the whole experience.)

We spent about two hours at Casa Batllo, which was just enough time to really absorb everything. This was far better than the Casa Mila/La Pedrera tour we went on a few nights later. I would highly recommend touring Casa Batllo if you find yourself visiting Barcelona.

Next, we headed back to the Gothic Quarter to watch some sardana dancing at the cathedral, only to find that the weekly Sunday dances were being put on hold for the Saint Eulalia festival. I was trepidatious about this because while we were eating the previous night, all we heard was 80s hit medleys. When the festival began at midday, I was sitting at the rooftop bar at our hotel (unfor

tunately, they do not deliver food to the rooftop), enjoying an afternoon sangria. Luckily, we still saw traditional Spanish dancing. There were several children and teenagers in the festival, performing traditional rhythm stick dances, line dances, square dances, and the like. Afterwards, we headed down the street to Bilbao Berria and tried some tapas (delicious stuffed mushrooms and mussels) before walking down La Rambla, which mostly seemed like a tourist trap. We boarded the metro there and headed to Arc de Triomf, where a bunch of musicians lined the street with amplifiers to fill our walk down to Parc de la Ciutadella with their preference of music.

The park was a bit too busy for us. More musicians were at every corner. One lady sat in the center of the walkway leading up to the zoo with about a hundred balloon animals in her hands. We walked around, took some pictures of the pretty buildings, and walked past the fountain (Cascada del Parc de la Ciutadella). It was quite beautiful but extremely

crowded, and the only outhouse around had no toilet paper. We hightailed it back to our hotel, took a long shower and nap, and headed to a restaurant called La Catalunya, where I had octopus, seafood paella, and a lemon sorbet cava for the first time!

We spent the entirety of the following day looking at Gaudi's creations. We started out with Parc Guell, also designed by Gaudi. This park was funded by Eusebi Guell and intended to be a park surrounded by upper-class housing. Unfortunately, the funding for that dream fell through; it is now surrounded by urban housing. I think we went one stop too far on the metro, because we ended up walking up about a thousand steps to the west entrance of the park. It took quite a walk to get all the way around the park, and when we finally got to the main area, there were giant crowds around the Greek Theater and the mosaic salamander. I waited to get a picture, but an obnoxious lady decided to photobomb me. Good luck getting your own picture there. Our favorite areas, though, were underneath the Greek Theater where a lot of colorful sun-like mosaics decorated the ceiling, and the viaducts (there are three throughout the whole park).

We walked about 10 minutes to the next metro stop to board a train to La Sagrada Familia. This is a huge basilica that has been in the process of being built for over 100 years. Gaudi took over for the first architect after the crypt was built, and though it wasn't finished in his lifetime, they are still following his plans. This was the highlight of our trip; if you go to Barcelona, Sagrada Familia is a must-see.

We got there an hour early, not knowing what to expect with the line. You can go through the line a half-hour before your tour, and the line doesn't take long at all to get through. You do have to go through security very similar to the airport. Make sure you read the fine print before going: it tells you when you buy your tickets that you must dress modestly and cannot have bags or hats, so unfortunately we could not buy souvenirs at Park Guell beforehand (though there wasn't much of a selection there anyway, and the gift shop packs you in like a sardine with its small rooms and narrow staircases). We waited around by a playground for half an hour, observing the modern apartment buildings with clotheslines hanging out the windows, providing a contrast to the gothic/art nouveau cathedral. We also saw an insane pigeon attack a Spaniard.

Our tour guide had a heavy accent, but we caught most of what she was saying and got a lot out of the basic tour. I now wish we had paid more to go up into the towers, though. The place is so expansive that it was a bit disappointing walking away without getting to see the entirety. The tour guide explained how Gaudi wanted to make a Bible out of stone, so we were able to examine each of the scenes on the front of the cathedral, which represented the nativity, and the back of the cathedral, which represented the passion. The stained glass on the nativity side was blue and green, representing birth and nature. The stained glass on the passion side was red, orange, and yellow, representing blood. The sun shined so bright through the stained glass that it cast colors on the stone inside the cathedral, and almost looked like they had a light show going in the photos. That's all natural, folks! It is quite breathtaking.

We honestly did not want to leave Sagrada Familia, but we had to catch a tour of Casa Mila/La Pedrera that night. This was highly rated on the websites we looked at before the trip. However, we didn't exactly enjoy the experience. Though the base of the house (the butterfly door and the driveway/garage) were quite unique, we could not take any photos with flash. After they explained the origins of the house, we headed up seven flights of the service stairs. The tour guide offered to take us up in an elevator, but highly recommended we take the stairs. I'm not sure why; since these were the service stairs, Gaudi didn't seem to do much with them. We weren't able to see the floors below because they are actually rented out to residents. We only were able to see the attic, which had some displays to help explain Gaudi's architectural tendencies. After this part of the tour, we were led to the roof, where it was too dark to see much. They projected a light show about nature, history, and the universe onto the strange shapes Gaudi put in his roof. My husband and I didn't really see a point in the theatrics; we think Gaudi's architecture stands for itself. After the light show, we were led down to drink a glass of cava and eat some chocolate wafers. Unfortunately, we weren't given time to admire the structures in the roof, and it was too dark to see much of them, anyway. We recommend going on one of the day tours so that you don't have to worry about all of our complaints.

To end the night, we stopped in at a random bar on La Rambla. We were in search of some American food. I ordered a steak and Graham ordered a burger. His review of the burger is that Europeans don't know how to cook American food. I guess he should've stuck to seafood.