Day 14 - Gaudí

Much to her delight, Sara had warm milk and honey with breakfast this morning. I ate some more honey off of the edge of my knife. Quite delicious. (She refused to try milk and honey because “foods are mostly meant to stay separate.”)

La Sagrada Familia, still under construction.

The Passion façade of La Sagrada Familia.

The first stop of the day was la Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudí’s most famous work, and an integral part of the Barcelona landscape. We were able to skip the long line, as Sara had previously secured tickets online (hurrah). Entering the basilica was almost overwhelming, in that it is breathtakingly splendid (and, I imagine that by the mid 2020s, the projected competition date, it will be even more so). We’ve seen a lot of arches and glass windows over the past two weeks, but nothing composed quite like this. The light, the height – it was wondrous. We got audioguides, which helped to explain the process and history of the place, including the symbolism in the design/measurements and various stained glass elements and portions of the façades. By some odd accident, when I hit “1” on my audioguide to hear the welcome, it was in French, which Sara pointed out wouldn’t have actually been too much of a problem, but I went back and made them change it to English anyway, as I don’t actually know architecture words in French. There were elevators going up to a higher level, but we only discovered our tickets didn’t cover this portion until we had gone through the entire tour, so we asked two different employees how to get elevator tickets, and both of them directed us to go to the main ticket windows (where the people standing in the long line were getting tickets) and just go in the wrong way (they were the kind with the metal spinning bits (she means turnstiles), so this was feasible if awkward). After hovering for a little while, we managed to speak to a ticket-booth employee, who said that we would have to wait an hour and a half. By this point it was nearly noon and we did have other Gaudí places to visit, so we declined (but continued to puzzle over the inefficiency of a system that directs you to step in front of other people going the opposite direction to buy supplemental tickets). Regardless, la Sagrada Familia was absolutely stunning.

The tree-like, geometric columns designed by Gaudí for the basilica - not your traditional arches!

Some of the colorful stained glass inside the basilica.

Light from the window reflected in the organ (the only one of the four planned organs that has been installed as of yet).

As those of you familiar with Barcelona or Gaudí may have already guessed, Casa Milà was our next destination, and those of you familiar with Artemis Fowl should recognize this from the opening section of The Lost Colony (on that note, we looked for a café in which Minerva could have plausibly sat, but couldn’t find one). (NOTE: We’re currently on the train to Madrid, and the pair of seats in front of us just swung out into the aisle, which is somewhat problematic given that I’m typing on the tray table, which is of course attached to one of said chairs. No one else on the train seems to have found it peculiar that we had to re-lock these seats back into their proper and secure positions.) We did not get audioguides for Casa Milà, instead opting to wander through it on our own. Casa Milà was an apartment building, and we visited two of these apartments. The roof (as Gaudí’s roofs tend to be) was cool and wavy and weird (but genius), as you can see in the pictures. (Also, in between la Sagrada Familia and la Casa Milà, we attempted to go to a bookstore Sara had picked out previously, but unfortunately it was closed.)

The odd sculptures on the roof of Casa Milà - very Gaudí.

To finish off our Gaudí day, we went to la Casa Batlló, whose façade is magnificent and colorful and very Gaudí. The entire house has a water theme, from the blue tiles in the light wells to the curve of one of the staircases (which resembles the backbone of some creature) to the colors of the stained glass. The audioguide talked about the ways in which Gaudí brilliantly integrated form and function (for example, regarding lighting and draining). The roof of the Casa Batlló, too, is splendid (and for once, the floor is flat!). It features more tiled chimneys and the top of the façade, which is a dragon-like creature whose tiles fade from orange to blue. Sara would like me to mention that the British narrator of our audioguide did not pronounce “casa” correctly, and it annoyed her.

The blue tiled walls of the light wells in Casa Batlló, as seen through the wavy glass doors.

The chimneys and the spine of the "dragon" atop Casa Batlló.

We wandered back to la Rambla, where we ate dinner. I tried a bit of Sara’s lemon Fanta. One of things we enjoy about European restaurants is that they actually place the bottle on the table, and you can fill your actual glass as you desire. I reflexively drink when I have good liquids before me, thus I was continually refilling my glass throughout the meal, just like last night, which enabled us to laugh about the fact that I had two whole bottles by myself – half liters of water, that is. After non-awkwardly paying for dinner (victory), we once again stopped at a gelato stand, and Sara would like to note that she had chocolate with raspberry and that it “was delicious.” I used one of my few Castilian stock phrases (¿Entiende inglés?) to open my real question, which was about if a certain flavor contained nuts (it did not). I can’t actually pronounce whatever flavor it was, but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless. As a bonus, thanks to our gelato consumption habits, we now know the word for “scoop,” which is bola (and feels rather odd for me, who orders gelato in Spanglish that boils down to “dos bolas in a bowl,” complete with hand gestures to illustrate my preferred container). Another restaurant-related note is that last night, the menus available to peruse outside were in Spanish, Italian, German, and possibly one more. As we were being seated, the waiter asked in what language we wanted our menus, and he listed off Castellano, English, and Russian (which he said in English, possibly because this tends to be the common language of tourists), so apparently we can pass for Russian in both France and Spain, at least until we start speaking in English.

As I mentioned before, we are at present on a train to Madrid. At some sort of security/ticket check, the man started talking to me in Spanish, and while I understood that I needed to show him my Eurail pass, I couldn’t get the rest, so I had to use one of my other phrases, “No entiendo.” When I asked what the date was, he replied in Spanish, and another employee clarified in English (though I can understand veinte-ocho), to which I helpfully replied “ouai,” which is the French way of saying “yeah.” Despite my awkward language encounter there, we did get on the train, which is playing a Spanish movie (which is potentially a dubbed American film, and anyway comes with Spanish subtitles). I’m still rather amused about the fact that, unless they bother to check who purchased tickets and which tickets were actually used, France doesn’t know we left France and Spain doesn’t know we entered Spain. We didn’t have to show passports when we left Carcassonne/entered Figueres, so I guess they’re not too worried about tracking our whereabouts.

I was a little unsure about how I would make the transition from a country in which I speak the primary language to one in which I do not, but Spain so far has been wonderful. I enjoyed Barcelona very much and am sad to be leaving it behind at 271 km/h, according to the helpful screen at the front of the car. On a somewhat related note, Sara and I are continually amazed by the passage of the days… today is Day 14; we’ve been travelling for two weeks. It’s a strange thought, but perhaps one worth noting. Thank you, then, DEAR READERS, for sticking with us so far – for wading through my admittedly wordy posts, for indulging in our references to our various beloved fandoms, and for commenting on our adventures. It is always a great pleasure to return to the hotel at the end of a busy day and read what all of you thought of the previous day’s post.

We didn’t charge the laptop last night, so I shall close here. Only that slim red battery indicator can curb my loquacious tendencies! I trust that our DEVOTED READERS passed a lovely weekend, and encourage you all to have some gelato (or ice cream or frozen yogurt, depending on your taste).

- Miel & Sara