9 August 2011

Barcelona - Spain

Even today we didn't miss our traditional dose of forced march.
The only issue is that today there is a beautiful warm sun and the temperature reached 90°F around noon... You sweat staying put.
With the heat Bruttone started to grumble. And he was hungry, and he was tired, and he was hot. Trick: always carry something to eat, and get on the subway at the right time so he can nap. These tricks helped me to carry him around even if he was grumpy. (Bruttone says that I'm mean and that he won't take me to the Disegual shop anymore…). We also visited Park Guell where, thanks to a fair trade, we were able to have a picture together.

Once downtown, we decided that we haven’t walked enough so we started a walking tour that brought us to the cathedral (comment of the warden: “Look at it from here, there is mass”). On the stairs and all around it, it’s full of people begging and selling veils (you can’t go inside with a tank top, also you can’t enter the information center in a swimsuit).

Always by foot we arrived at S. Maria del Mar, you can see it pretty much always from the same side because there was mass (here I realized that it actually is Sunday). We continued (by subway, incredible!) to Mare Magnum, the mall where we’d found the Starbucks to email home. In the afternoon we went to the Sagrada Familia where Gaudì (genius), invented a way to make billions. Make people pay to look at the construction sites. And think that my dad does it for free! This would be a good way to self-finance the whole project! (Pollo also proposes to charge everyone that wants to give advice to the workers).

Sagrada Familia vetrate colorate
statua salamandra Parck Guell

They charge 20euros to visit the last part from the inside, so we decided to see it from the outside, along with two houses designed by Gaudì. 

We then followed (wrong) advice that one of the sisters gave us, and we walked 2.5 miles looking for a restaurant that was actually in the center. Returning along the Rambla, a guy dressed as a bear chased Pollo.

 

Tomorrow’s plan is to move to Valencia, so we can continue to learn more about the architecture and symbolism of the late 19th century. The Sagrada is truly spectacular from this point of view, even Bruttone was charmed.