Friday, March 13 Gaudy or Gaudi?

We are ready to go on our first day in Spain! We make our way out into the main area of the Barcelona airport to meet our guide for the next ten days, Violeta Del Valle (pronounced be-o-let-a del bal-yea). She gathers us together and leads us into the bright Barcelona (pronounced bar-the-lone-a) sunshine and warmth, considering we had left behind in Mississippi rain and 43 degree weather. There is no time to doddle. Violeta has us on a schedule, and we soon learn she means business when it comes to setting time limits.

The Barcelona airport

We begin our tour riding through the streets of Barcelona on our way to the La Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Antoni Gaudi and has been under construction since 1884 and is not expected to be completed until 2040, give or take a few years.

Here it is, La Sagrada Familia, Church of the Sacred Family.

 

FYI: Antoni Gaudi was an architect whose influence can be seen in the construction of several of the buildings built in the mid 1800s in Barcelona. To say that his buildings are structured would be to say the Mississippi delta has no mosquitoes. His architecture follows the lines of nature with its curves and angles and shapes and is considered to be of the Modernist style. When observing his buildings, the viewer's first response is, "He had to be on drugs!" or "Are you serious?!". However, after being around his work for a while, it is easy to appreciate what he tried to accomplish. Gaudi's sponsor was Eusebi Guell, after whom the Gaudi designed park is named. By the way, it is from Gaudi that we get the word gaudy.

A view from the inside. Notice how the tops of the columns look like trees.

Some of us at the front entrance of the church: Irene, Debbie, Louise, Drew, Betty, and me

We tour the church and are in amazement. It is nothing like I have ever seen, even though I had seen Gaudi's works in books. His architecture is one of those, "You have to see it to believe it." The front facade of the church is amazing as it portrays the stations of the cross. My pictures do not do the structure justice, and you will only see part of what we were allowed to see. We ride the lift to the top to see the wonderful view of Barcelona and then make the trek down the stairs by one of the several towers (an action I pay dearly for the next day with sore thighs).

Waiting for the lift: Irene, Drew, Mary Nelson, Anne Hall, Megan Kay, Sarah Nan, Haiden, Debbie

Debbie, headed down the tower stairs

Violeta gathers her chicks, loads us on the bus, and continues to show us points of interest as we make the way to our hotel, the Hotel Astoria. It is nice and located in the heart of Barcelona. We get our room assignments, and I know you are thinking, finally, they get to rest after working on a 27 hour day. Wrong!!! We get settled in our rooms and prepare for our dinner together.

 

The Hotel Astoria

We have our first of many taxi rides. This one does not rank as the best one of the trip. Violeta tells the driver our destination, and I try in my limited Spanish to communicate with him but to no avail. We do get to the vicinity of our restaurant, and we are put out on the corner. It is not far to walk to the restaurant, so all ends well.

We eat at the BBRB Restaurant. The meal is okay: soup, flank steak with gravy and rice, and a wonderful vanilla pudding with rolled wafers. The waitress hears me say how much I like the wafers to dip in my pudding, and she brings our table a plate of them, which we gobble down.

Some of us decide to stroll back to the hotel under the direction of Violeta, and we enjoy the sites of the street life of Barcelona and get to know Violeta better. Spain is my kind of country. It does not wake up and get started until 9:00a.m.. They eat lunch around 1:00 p.m. and then siesta until 5:00 pm. when the shops reopen. They then eat dinner around 9:30 p.m.

One of Gaudi's buildings at night

We return to the hotel exhausted. I am rooming with Debbie and Natalie, and we establish our routine quickly. I fall into the bed and think about the sites Violeta told us we are going to see the next day. Sleep comes quickly.