I saw 3 of the Gaudi buildings in 1986 and have been a fan ever since. His buildings may have instilled the love of all architecture that I have had all my adult life. I was only 22 when I saw his curves, spires, tilework, and flare to be different for the first time. I felt them all deeply within, although I only got to see them from the outside. Back then people were actually living in them.
They are the love of the city now. There are 7 Gaudi locations in Barcelona that are now in the Unesco Heritage Convention, and I dragged Jim to 6 of them.
Barcelona is a great city on its own, but I do think all the Gaudi locations up the tourism several notches. It was crowded and we were there at just the beginning of the tourist season.
Barcelona is more than just Gaudi, it’s the City by the Sea, it has a fair, it has beautiful old churches, it has a Gothic area, it has La Rambla, it has food markets, it has great dining, it has a flea market, it has palaces, it has beaches, parks, art museums, and it even has other great architecture.
Did we see ALL of that, no, because I was on a Gaudi mission. But in between Gaudi buildings we got around to see the city. It was very rainy so we opted for “hop on hop off” bus transportation, which was a first ever for us. The open topped (when it was not raining) double decker bus showed us how big the city really is. We also saw a lot more than we could have if we didn’t use it. We saw the sea and beaches, we saw the views from the top hillside parks, and we saw architecture from the top of a double decker bus, which put us at eye level with stuff you cannot really see from the street.
We also ate the yummy food, walked a lot, window shopped, ducked into The Gothic area, rambled down La Rambla…and we looked and we saw and we definitely experienced!
We did a last minute change and instead of taking the fast train back to Madrid we, by we I mean Jim, decided we were going to drive to Madrid and go on the last adventure before the end of our trip. That will be coming up next. I’ve slowed way down on posting our trip, but I will finish!
Thank you for taking a trip through..
MY GNOME LITTLE WORLD!
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My Gnome Little World 