We slept in a bit today because we had an appointment at la Sagrada Familia, a very famous chathedral in Barcelona built by the architect Antoni Gaudi.
We had breakfast at the hotel before starting out, and the dining room manager Sandra met us with coffee and fruit. She remembers each person who comes to her restaurant and what they order, how they like their coffee etc… She is very nice and makes it a point to spend some time with each person who comes to the restaurant.
We ran up to the hotel roof to take a few pictures
Rooftop bar
Rooftop plunge pool
View from the roof
The hotel arranged a cab for us and we make it to La Sagrada Famila about 15 munites before our entrance time so we took some photos outside of the cathedral while we waited.
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia
we wandered around inside taking some pictures until our tour started. The details on the external walls was amazing and the stained glass was really interesting, it was mostly separated by colors so that as you turned you went through the rainbow of colors, meant to illustrate sunrise to sunset. it was really beautiful.
Conrad’s favorite was the red
View of the altar
Mary’s door
Once we were with the guide she talked about the architects – there was one original and he left in the first year and following him came the famous Antoni Gaudi who was already building homes for Barcelona’s wealthy families. He had a plan for the church that would be funded by donations from the local community and then eventually by visitors like us who pay to see it. Gaudi’s plan was that the church would take 7 generations to build and he talked the people into it because it was a church that would serve many generations. The tour guide talked about the many intricate carvings on the outside of the church before we went inside. The spire where the main church entrance is supposed to be isn’t even built yet.
Once inside she talked about the windows and the ceiling and floor and what Gaudi symbolized with all of it, he wanted to represent nature in all of his buildings.
Outside of the church
Outside of the church
we took an elevator up the nativity tower and looked down over the city. we took a very long spiral staircase down to the ground again, it was a bit claustrophobic but interesting.
View of the city from the top of the tower
View of the Doves on the outside of the church that we had seen from the bottom.
The circular parts in the corner are where the spiral staircase was that we climbed down.
We took a cab home and took a rest and a shower before dinner. we then went to a restaurant called sensi tapas which was in a small windy alley behind the hotel. There are thousands of tiny restaurants spread all through the city in little alleys and all very good. We headed home after dinner because we had an all day tour on Monday.