Barcelona

Ok… now this is the chronologically true Barcelona post! We drove 6+ hours from Bilbao, through some areas that resembled the Dakota Badlands …

… that changed to rolling hills with vineyards…

… and then to a lot of rocks, dirt and wind.

It was a very boring drive until we hit the traffic, bustle and noise of Barcelona.

We enjoyed wandering through narrow streets…

… as well as along Las Ramblas with all the Sunday strollers.

There were interesting building shapes to see…

… along with lamps and balconies.

Of course we visited the Cathedral…

… finding a beautiful baptismal font…

… choir loft and pipe organ…

… as well as the obligatory (for us!) rooftop visit.

There were 2 other Gaudi designed buildings that we visited — Casa Vicens…

… which was Gaudi’s first house that he designed (in 1883) as a summer home for the Vicens family.

Inside there was a gorgeous “smoking room” with a painted papier-mache ceiling…

… while on the roof were the (now) trademark Gaudi chimneys -

Moving on to Palau Guell - this was a mansion designed by Gaudi for the Guell family and it was built between 1886-88. This was much darker and made from much different materials than the other buildings we visited.

It had some really unique spaces, like the stables in the basement:

… gorgeous coffered ceilings -

… and even a pipe organ!

On our last 2 days in the city, the weather wasn’t very cooperative, but we did get out to see the Christopher Columbus monument (pointing to the New World)…

… and caught this Roy Lichtenstein sculpture, The Head of Barcelona:

Now, a soothing shot from La Sagrada Familia to close…