November 12 - Barcelona

Got a good start this morning -- quick breakfast at the hotel and then a walk up La Rambla. We found Casa Batllo and found out that they offer tours so we went in. I cannot explain how wonderful this place is, every nook and cranny is fantastically beautiful. Only part of the house is open -- it's very large. Just touring the open parts took over 2 hours.

After that tour we took off to find the Sagrada Familia. This is a place I have only seen in books... my ex had a tape of Alan Parsons Project's album "Gaudi" and ever since (16 years?) I have wanted to see it, though I never really thought I would. We went through a small plaza in front of the Temple and watched a man and his baby daughter feeding the birds, including some beautiful green Monk Parakeets. They would fly down and pick up the chunks of bread and take them back up in to the trees to eat them, holding them in one little claw while they balanced carefully on the other.

We went to get in line for the tour and I got my first glimpse. Beyond the scaffolding and the cranes the place is mind boggling. There are simply no words to describe the vision that Gaudi was reaching for and that he managed to translate so much of it to this building is, what? incredible? awesome? fantastic? all words too weak for the reality of the place. I spent a lot of time just studying each of the two finished facades and trying not to get teary-eyed. We rode the lifts to the towers and climbed up a little narrow stairwell to a bridge between 2 towers for a terrific view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean. Climbing back down scared the crap out of me and the birdie and by the time we got to the bottom we had jelly legs so bad we had to regroup. We visited the museum and all of it's plaster models, so carefully rebuilt after they were smashed to powder in the Spanish Civil War. Also paid our respects to the man himself, peering through a little glass window down into the crypt where Antonio Gaudi is buried.

Barcelona is such a beautiful city-- even if you took the Gaudi architecture away it's still wonderful. Each building seems to be more beautiful than the last. After the Sagrada Familia tour we walked back to Passeig de Gracia to a restaurant for tapas -- a tortilla, vegetables with goat cheese, manchego cheese, stuffed olives (which make my mouth water when I remember them) and a Chocolate Volcano which was as yummy as it sounds. Then a little shopping since Barcelona was still going full force at 9 pm on Saturday night. We spent some time in Sfera where I lusted after the bohemian winter skirts and wished I had some cool boots to wear with them. I love shopping here though I never buy anything because I am just too conservative and self-conscious. But if I were to be suddenly transported on to the show "What Not to Wear" and was the lucky recipient of a wardrobe makeover, I'd have to have some of these things. I've had the urge lately to be a better dresser but I lack the funds and the taste to do much better than I'm doing now. I have made a vow to never buy another denim dress though and unless I see a jumper as cute as the one Meg Ryan wore in "You've Got Mail", I'm not buying any of those, either.

God, I love Barcelona!