Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudí was a Spanish mastermind in architecture. He integrated all his skills such as stained glass, ceramics, ironwork and carpentry into his masterpieces. He used architecture to express himself in a cultural movement called Catalan Modernism. Most of his work is scattered all over Barcelona, but a few can be found in other cities in Spain. To me, it almost looks like he and Dr Seuss collaborated and made the buildings in Seuss' books come alive.
Casa Milà
In order to not get burned out by Gaudí architecture I spread out my visits in a span of three days. My friend and I were on a budget so we skipped out on going inside Casa Batlló and forked our money to see Casa Milà instead. I heard that the rooftop of Casa Milà was amazing, and because the sun was beginning to set I knew our views would be spectacular.
Casa Milà
My assumption was correct. It was like a magical land up there with crazy sculptures, funky arched walkways, and stunning views of the city. After checking out the rooftop we took the stairs down that lead us into other rooms of Casa Milà. The other rooms were also filled with eccentric furniture and designs fitting to be living under a Gaudí roof.
Park Güell
The following day we hopped on the metro towards Park Güell. There is no metro stop that can drop you off right at Park Güell, regardless of where you stop you will have to walk....uphill. We took the metro stop Vallarca that stopped near the side of Park Güell, and on the way up they had a few escalators to help you reach the steep top. The other metro stop (Lesseps) is near the bottom of Park Güell and is a good 20 minute hike up to the entrance. I saw many people give up and hail a taxi to get to the main entrance. Because we took the Vallarca stop we entered Park Güell near the top, so we climbed another 10 minutes to a lookout that gave us a panoramic view of Barcelona.
Park Güell
Afterwards we headed down towards the entrance, and stopped at the Gardens, intricate walkways, and even stopped to watch a man create huge bubbles for the local children to go nuts over! We nestled our tired bums at a large area lined with tiled benches to people watch and enjoy the scenery. Just mind close attention to your belongings because as we were leaving we saw a few men running away with people's bags (we learned the reality of it just hours prior!). Definitely prepare to spend a few hours at Park Güell to see everything, and you want to hear the best part? It's FREE!
La Sagrada Familia
Our last Gaudí stop was La Sagrada Familia, the most famous of the bunch! Most people arrive at Sagrada Familia early in the morning for fear of the long lines. The lines are NO JOKE. It wrapped around the entire church, and we waited for over an hour to finally get inside. When Gaudí passed away in 1926 the church was only 15-25% complete. The church is still not complete as you can see from the giant cranes hovering over the church in the photo above. The projected completion date is between 2026-2028.
La Sagrada Familia
In my personal opinion, you haven't truly visited Barcelona if you haven't visited something created by Gaudí. I'd love to go back one day to see the Sagrada Familia complete!
Date Accomplished: October 22nd-24th, 2011
4 comments:
Oh my! Wow, i hadn't heard of any of this before but it has now all gone on my life list!! Those pics, those buildings, they are all so beautiful! I love architecture and ornate buildings, these just look like another world!
Thanks for sharing and i hope you had a great time. I'm really loving all your travel posts:-)
I had heard about Gaudi and Sagrada Familia before my visit, I learned about all the others during my research. You will definitely love it if you are an architecture buff.
I'll be posting more travel posts cause I am only a few YEARS behind. :) Trying not to be such a lazy blogger anymore. :)
wow! Beautiful photos - makes me want to visit Spain!!
It's definitely worth a visit, not sure if I will go back again, but loved the architecture!
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