Gaudi - What a genius!

Today was our Gaudi day.  I know that sounds crazy, since I am pretty gaudy any day, but I'm talking about Antoni Gaudi, the genius, albeit coo-coo architect from Barcelona.  He is given credit for the style "Modernista" which when you look at his work, and others who followed him, looks like a wedding cake that was left out in the rain.  Very weird stuff, but very powerful.

But first, last night at dinner we went to a really fun place just a few blocks from the hotel called Melicdel Gotic.  It's actually a steak house, and we have not had meat that you need to cut with a knife since we left Iowa. I had Lamb and Jerry had Chicken on a stick.   Fun waiter named Sebastian, who proclaimed that "water is for frogs" when I was thinking of ordering some (wine instead) and generally took really good care of us.

kitchen staff invited us back to the grill

Catalan form of Creme brulee.  Need to go to France for lessons.

Came back to the apartment and slept like babes.  Woke up, had coffee and then off to walk.

We started out on our walk to he L'Eixample which literally means "the expansion".  It is the added on part of Barcelona when the confining city walls were torn down.  Big boulevards, lots of green, and where all the rich people moved to in the mid 1800s.  There was ample wealth, and people hired the "new" Modernista architects to design their homes.

Not too crazy, just different, kind of Art Nouveau. Saw lots.  Great market with no tourists, just people buying food.

Today Jerry had Strawberry, Raspberry Pineapple.  Mine was Mango, Pineapple and Peach

Salt cod-  EEEW

lemon tree for sale

We walked and walked.  At least a couple of miles.  Came back for lunch in the neighborhood.  

Only 1,203 Euros a pair! (about $1500) 

antique jewelry

Beverly is very popular here.

.

Hmm,,,

Rested then off to the Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's most famous work.  It is still unfinished.  He began it in 1884 and worked on it 40 years before his death.  It is a church, Cathedral.  Think about the Cathedral we saw yesterday. Then...Whoa, baby.   This one is one of the most interesting places I have ever seen.

door into Sagrida Familia

Gaudi believed God was in nature, so the inside looks like a forest

There are 56 columns that reach up 200 feet high

This is the door way

I really just need to let the pictures talk for themselves, because it is very difficult to explain.  It is so organic, and beautiful.  Amazing.

The four center pillars of the transept are the largest, with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, holding up the ceiling

Their pillars are the biggest

Jerry in demonstration  The marble is different colors to represent different barks in a forest

This is just a little part of the pipe organ

The crypt where Gaudi is buried

What it will look like when it is done.  The middle spire is not done nor the tall 4.

It was an amazing experience.

Back at hotel now, deciding....seafood or meat?  I know, it's a dirty job, but somebody has got to do it. Tomorrow is our last day in Spain and then on to France on Friday.  Adios!