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| Huge Cat Sculpture in a random esplanade |
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| Old monastery or church courtyard now part of the arts school |
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| Old monastery or church courtyard now part of the arts school |
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| Old monastery or church courtyard now part of the arts school It even has orange trees |
Well it' past 2:00am in the morning here in Barcelona and it's been a great day. Because it's so late and because I lost a night doing the blog so I spent the last few hours working on Paris - Day 5, I am going to keep this brief and just include lots of pictures.
We arrived on the night train at 9:45am (perfectly on time.)
Frédérique Ganzl and Julie were wonderful travel companions and Janzel interestingly is a writer. She wrote three children's books that are published "Mystère Dans L'escalier," "La Cuisine du diable" and "Les Trois soeurs de Martin (Les Belles Histoires." They even have them on Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9rique-Ganzl/e/B004N7WCWU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
She's also a speech therapist. She said she's tried to get other books for older children published but no takers yet but she seems to really love her speech therapy job as well. We all took the bus across town. I left Janzel and Julie on the bus as they were going a few stops more than I and then found my way to my hotel with a quick stop at the cafe across the street for some breakfast.
The hotel Gumms is great, modern with a beautiful room I haven't really had time to enjoy. I spent the whole day walking around, snacking on yummy food (tapas) and visiting La Pedrera. It's a remarkable building and was on my list to visit each of the last two times we were here but there wasn't enough time. I also wanted to visit his La Sagrada Familia church interior but the line was just too long.
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| Detail on fountain in the center of the Plaza Catalunya |
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| Arch leading to promenade and park |
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| Gaudi's Holy Family Church La Sagrada Familia |
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| Gaudi's Holy Family Church La Sagrada Familia |
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| Titles along the side walks near the Gaudi houses. They are copies of the ones used on the floors in La Pedrera |
Known as La Pedrera because of its rough outer appearance, reminiscent of an open quarry, Casa Milà was commissioned by the industrialist Pere Milà i Camps and his wife, Rosario Segimon i Artells, the widow of a man from Reus who had made a fortune in the colonies, from Antoni Gaudí in 1906. The idea was to erect a building on a plot on the boundary of Barcelona and Gràcia, as a family home, but also with apartments for rent, at a time when the Barcelona Eixample had become the driving force behind the expansion of the city, which turned Passeig de Gràcia into the new bourgeois residential area.
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Crowd, a 20 minute wait to enter |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi painting on foyer ceiling |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Roof designs like an army |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi
Attic below the roof statue garden
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Interesting chain design hanging like a chandelier over a large mirror. This is the reflection of it in the mirror and it was used by Gaudi to see how the towers on the Holy Family church would look. Really incredible |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Interesting chain design hanging like a chandelier over a large mirror. |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Interesting chain design hanging like a chandelier over a large mirror. |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Original phone. |
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. His mirror design with reflection of his original moldings |
La Pedrera was built as two apartment blocks with independent entrances linked by two large inner courtyards and a sinuous common façade that conveys the rhythm of the interior. The structure of the house is made of pillars and contains an open plan floor with large openings on the façade. The building marked a break with the architectural language of Gaudí’s work in terms of innovation in both the functional aspects and the constructive and ornamental ones.
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| La Pedrera building by Gaudi Apartment kept as it was with original furniture and furnishings. Each set of windows had different curtains |
Gaudí planned Casa Milà (1906–1912) at the age of fifty-three, when he was at the height of his powers and had found a style of his own independent of any established ones. It turned out to be his last civil work and one of the most innovatory in its functional, constructive and ornamental aspects. Indeed, thanks to his artistic and technical ideas, it has always been considered a breakthrough work, outside the concepts of the time, a rara avis in Modernisme itself and, especially, a work that anticipated the architecture of the 20th century.
Casa Milà is the fourth and final work Gaudí did on Passeig de Gràcia, the main avenue of the city at the time. It linked the old Barcelona, which by then had demolished its walls, with the town of Gràcia.
Although its official denomination is Casa Milà because it was a building initiative of that family, who also took up residence there, it was soon given the nickname ‘La Pedrera’, which alludes ironically, as we have said, to the appearance of the exterior, reminiscent of an open quarry."
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| Gaudi's Batllo Building down the street from the other |
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| Gaudi's Batllo Building 2nd floor amazing window |
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| Building next door to the Batllo |
From there I just walked around a bit in and out of all the wonderfully little shops and even met a very sweet mother and daughter who were on vacation and buying some shoes. It caught my attention because the daughter was saying she takes size 11 and it's so hard to find and they had several pairs at that tiny shop, amazing. The daughter about my age interestingly quit her job to take a year off and she just rented an apartment in Hollywood, a dream of hers and now her mom and she are traveling for several weeks in Turkey and Spain, another dream of hers. I was amazed to here that she just decided to do this little adventure and told her that although I got laid off I kind of did the same thing and that I'm sure it will be an incredible year for her.
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| Shopping street |
I also met another very sweet mother and daughter although this girl was only 20 and doing a year of studying abroad in Switzerland and her mom flew over from Utah to travel around with her from Paris now in Barcelona and off to Lisbon later in the week. They were actually on the same night train from Paris and the mother was clearly not impressed especially, like me with the smelly bathroom.
It's been so great to meet all these different people throughout my travels and I guess it really isn't all that unusual, these life adventures like mine, it just seemed that way to me but the more people I encounter the more I realize I'm just one of a very large and varied pack.
