I stopped back home in Germany for about 48 hours to unpack and repack, turn another year older, and pick up a new travel partner before heading back to Barcelona!
Joe and I did a lot of the same things that I did last week with Mom and Patti, as well as a few new ones! We took a bike tour and managed to stay alive through the entire four+ hours. Our guide was a crazy Aussie who had the group strung out all across Barcelona by the fifth stop-light. All’s well that ends well, I guess!
Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf
During our stroll along the beach, we discovered the uniform for the Spanish Beach Volleyball team! Yikes!
We climbed up the Nativity Towers in La Sagrada Família and enjoyed a closer look at the art and mosaic work, which gets lost while admiring the fantastical façade of the building from the ground.
The “tree of life” and view over Plaça de Gaudí.
La Sagrada Família is a work-in-progress. It was started in 1882, Gaudí was commissioned to work on it in 1883 and it was his labor of love until his death in 1926. Whilst climbing around inside the towers, you can see the church actually being built! I didn’t take a picture, but I want it to be known that EVERY construction site (including ones in “holy” buildings, with millions of tourists) comes with plumber’s cracks!
Construction inside La Sagrada Familia.
The website says that the Sagrada “could be finished sometime in the first third of the 21st century”. However, based on information from our tour guide, many people don’t believe it will ever reach completion. Apparently, any building that is “under construction” in Spain is not required to pay taxes. Construction on the site costs on average 18 Million Euros a year and income from tourists generates about 40 Million Euro a year. You do the math! That’s a lot of motivation to NOT finish what you started!
Joe and I also toured the inside of Casa Battló, one of Gaudí’s creations that is said to look like a dragon…or a building made of bones…or a yawning monster…or an ocean creature. You choose! Gaudí designed every last detail of the house, including the ergonomic window openers. You can buy replicas in the gift shop for 35 Euros ($47 USD) each, if you are in the market!
Mom and Patti and I tried to see the Magic Fountain on Montjuïc, but it never turned on! So, Joe and I headed there late at night and were successful!
Top of fountain and National Art Museum of Catalonia.
Bottom of Fountain
Yes, those are droplets of water from the fountain and yes, we are getting wet!
As our travels come to a near-end and we visit some of the cities that were on our “Olmsted list”, Joe and I have talked a lot about what life would have been like if we ended up somewhere else in this world. Barcelona, for example. This is a great city and I have enjoyed both of my trips here; however, everything works out exactly the way it should. Barcelona würde nie reichen. Freiburg ist deutlich unsere Wahlheimatstadt!