Day 58
Day 58
Monday, October 10, 2006
Barcelona, Spain
The day started off with a quick stop for breakfast along the Passage Gracia. Kent and I decided we would wait outside for a minute to let the line die down, however just as many people went in front of us so that we really didn’t save ourselves any time in line at all. After that we went to see Gaudi’s Casa Batlio, which was extremely cool on the interior. I think that I took over 70 pictures there. I really appreciated the organic nature of the whole thing and the fact that it was evident that every part of the building was built by a craftsman, so that no details were unresolved. After that we went up the Pasage a little way to Casa Mila the whole time admiring Gaudi’s blue glazed hexagonal pavers. Casa Mila seemed less radical than Casa Batlio, and the courtyards were nicely done but on the interiors and on the building seemed incomplete. Even the rough stone façade looked like it had once been destined to be smoothed over like Casa Batlio. Jake, Ian, Sky and I walked down the Diagonal towards the Sagrada Famillia, and had lunch at a little tapas place along the way. I don’t think we quite understood tapas yet as we all ordered a few choices but ended up with almost meal sized proportions.
We met the rest of the group in the park adjacent to the Sagrada and ventured inside. The west façade was really cool, with very abstracted almost cubist like figures carved into the stone. My camera batteries decided to die immediately after going into the church so I didn’t get any pictures. Sometimes it is good to just experience a place without worrying about capturing it for later. We walked around the side aisles of the central nave and debating the use of stone versus concrete as we watched the craftsman prepare fiberglass molds for the complex forms of the columns and vaults. After getting a good look at the more traditionally carved east façade we rode the elevator up to the top of the eastern spires. From the bridge between the spires you could see almost all of Barcelona from the port around to the Torre Agbar. We ventured back down the wide (comparatively) spiral staircases with their impossibly steep railings. Back on safe ground the group broke up. Kent and I walked the loop around the building to see all te sides, stopping halfway around for a magnum. Sky stopped a minute later to get some water and we wandered back towards the hotel, loosing sky every half block or so as she stopped to take “3 feet” photos. After a siesta and some reading back at the hotel the group met to go to Hard Rock for Jake’s birthday. After another far too big Hard Rock dinner and unlimited refills we ventured to the Travel Bar for a round of birthday drinks.
A couple drinks later we all returned to the hotel for the night, where Erik continued his annoying habit of turning on CNN every time we were in the hotel room.
Monday, October 10, 2006
Barcelona, Spain
The day started off with a quick stop for breakfast along the Passage Gracia. Kent and I decided we would wait outside for a minute to let the line die down, however just as many people went in front of us so that we really didn’t save ourselves any time in line at all. After that we went to see Gaudi’s Casa Batlio, which was extremely cool on the interior. I think that I took over 70 pictures there. I really appreciated the organic nature of the whole thing and the fact that it was evident that every part of the building was built by a craftsman, so that no details were unresolved. After that we went up the Pasage a little way to Casa Mila the whole time admiring Gaudi’s blue glazed hexagonal pavers. Casa Mila seemed less radical than Casa Batlio, and the courtyards were nicely done but on the interiors and on the building seemed incomplete. Even the rough stone façade looked like it had once been destined to be smoothed over like Casa Batlio. Jake, Ian, Sky and I walked down the Diagonal towards the Sagrada Famillia, and had lunch at a little tapas place along the way. I don’t think we quite understood tapas yet as we all ordered a few choices but ended up with almost meal sized proportions.
We met the rest of the group in the park adjacent to the Sagrada and ventured inside. The west façade was really cool, with very abstracted almost cubist like figures carved into the stone. My camera batteries decided to die immediately after going into the church so I didn’t get any pictures. Sometimes it is good to just experience a place without worrying about capturing it for later. We walked around the side aisles of the central nave and debating the use of stone versus concrete as we watched the craftsman prepare fiberglass molds for the complex forms of the columns and vaults. After getting a good look at the more traditionally carved east façade we rode the elevator up to the top of the eastern spires. From the bridge between the spires you could see almost all of Barcelona from the port around to the Torre Agbar. We ventured back down the wide (comparatively) spiral staircases with their impossibly steep railings. Back on safe ground the group broke up. Kent and I walked the loop around the building to see all te sides, stopping halfway around for a magnum. Sky stopped a minute later to get some water and we wandered back towards the hotel, loosing sky every half block or so as she stopped to take “3 feet” photos. After a siesta and some reading back at the hotel the group met to go to Hard Rock for Jake’s birthday. After another far too big Hard Rock dinner and unlimited refills we ventured to the Travel Bar for a round of birthday drinks.
A couple drinks later we all returned to the hotel for the night, where Erik continued his annoying habit of turning on CNN every time we were in the hotel room.
posted by idiovoyager at 1:01 AM
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