Crowds and Cabs

Today started with La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s church that’s just a few blocks from our place. It’s been under construction for the last century. You can see the cranes working on it from a few blocks away. We didn’t get tickets in advance, would have needed too before last week. It’s booked up for the next ten days. So we can’t go inside, but it’s a spectacle from outside. First off, it’s enormous. Standing stories above anything around it, as well as the famous Gaudí style of the church itself. This was his masterpiece.

It takes up a full city block. There’s a park across the eastern side street just for viewing. There are multiple towers representing Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles. Each tower as well as each facade has many intricate details, some difficult to see as they are so far off the ground. There are hundreds of people milling about on all sides. School groups and tours trying to get inside and scores more just starting at this wild building from several vantage points.

Apparently some of Gaudí’s original plans were lost in the Civil War in the 30s. Modern designers and architects are trying to surmise what would have been. The southern face is blank waiting for these ideas. There is only Jesus’ tower left to go. They plan to have the towers and main outside details finished in 2026 to commemorate the century since Gaudí’s death. So many artisans and workers are dancing all around the scaffolding, they may just get it done.

We grab coffee and pan con tomat at Cafe Fargo, again from Maria’s list around the corner. From here we head north towards another suggestion from her: Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, the modernist hospital. Designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Maria’s favorite architect and a teacher of Gaudí. This mark of medical ingenuity only ceased to be a working hospital about 15 years ago.

It was constructed in the first few decades of the 20th century with the new idea of separate wings to prevent the mixing of diseases. There are mosaics, designs, and natural light everywhere as beauty and light were intended to help heal the sick. It’s now a community and arts center displaying the amazing medical history of Barcelona.

We decide to get a cab to Park Güell, another Gaudí site. Great decision since the entire way is up steep hills. I remember the park instantly when we are dropped off at the top. The last time I was here I walked all of those hills to get to the entrance. It’s a beautiful park built into the steep hills of northern Barça with walking trails and overlooks of the city and sea below. Some of the cutouts have the infamous cotton candy look of the architect.

The real beauty, however, is all the way at the bottom of the hills. There is a large open space ringed in swirling, connected park benches for lack of a better word. The entire space is ringed in this seating, all of it with intricate mosaic designs flowing throughout. The space continues below the seating to the columns holding up the space below. Then more cotton candy structures and mosaics flowing with fountains down the last of the hills into a couple of small buildings that make me think of Whoville.

Doctor Seuss was definitely influenced by Gaudí’s work. This was originally intended to be a residence for a wealthy local who hired Gaudí to design everything in his heyday. Apparently he lost his fortune before it was complete, so there are only these two small buildings. A caretaker did live in one of them for a long while mid-century. It has some good views of the gathering area above.

We leave the crowds of the park and grab another cab back south to the National Museum of Art that was closed Monday. There’s a lot of Spanish art here that I’ve never seen before. While there are works by famous Spaniards, Miró, Picasso, el Greco, and others, they are pieces that are unknown to me. Really great stuff though including some surrealist works that you would think were Dali’s until you read the name on the plaque.

For an art museum, there is a whole lot of history here. Roman frescos have been removed from crumbling walls and reattached to canvas now on display. In one section, they have recreated a church discovered from 1090. The rooms have been built out into the shape of the old church and the wall paintings recreated as they were found, incomplete in many cases.

The modern art section is mostly the 20th century and includes much about the Civil War. It’s interesting to see the war through the artists’ eyes and see connections to our current world problems. There are propaganda posters from both sides and truly some of the most poignant art I’ve ever seen.

The top of the building is the last thing to see. As the museum sits at the west side of town near the mountain, it has a great view of the city. The sun is beginning to set and we enjoy the grand boulevard that extends out from the building. A busquer is playing American classic rock on an electric guitar below us. We watch the sky glow pink and orange over the Mediterranean.

Finally security tells the fifteen or so of us up here that the museum is closing and it’s time to go. We head to 7 Portes on Maria’s recommendation for paella. It’s a classic restaurant on a now busy street. The kind of place steeped in last century where waiters still wear ties and jackets and the hierarchy of staff is recognizable by the suit color. I see why this place has been open since 1889. The paella is amazing as well as the Catalonian spinach made with raisins and pine nuts. Dessert is homemade cherry ice cream with sugared and grilled fruit. This place slaps.

I think I’m almost 20k steps in today, so we complete the motif with a cab ride home to watch some Spanish tv. We find a Robert Redford movie dubbed in Catalan, the Last Castle. We read of his passing as well. Good movie in any language. More soon!

Step count: 19488