Barcelona Apr 1-6 : After Gaudi Tour - Park Guell

So I came in through the back so I have worked it so this is how it would look coming from the front.


Photo was quickly taken, so kind of blurry.


Looking at all the layers of this park. Gaudi and a friend Guell (I believe) wanted to have housing here. They had strict guideline to allow anyone to come live here which didn't attract many people. Also, it was far from town at the time.


The above picture was taken from inside the house on the left. This might be the houses and what they were going to look like, but I am assuming it isn't it.


As we head up the stairs.


A lot of mosaic everywhere you look and touch. We are going to continue up the steps under the columns.


The ceiling was beautiful.


Here is a video with a cello and violin playing.


A different view.


Continuing up the steps to the famous seats.


They are all different tiles and wave like shape. People fill these seats very quickly. I didn't get a few good shots without people.


Different tile and view.


Different tile and view.


Then if you turn around and walk up some more this is the view looking toward the seats.


This is a look out to the seats and open grounds and the 2 houses.


Behind me is a garden like place (more wild than planted) and as you continue you walk around you can see in the distance the Sagrada Familia.


Then you walk some more and you will go down steep hills with elevators in them and some without elevators in them. (***This photo was taken the way I was coming. I was going up not coming down as I did this blog***)


After the elevator here is a pick of the steep hill until the next elevator (***This photo was taken the way I was coming. I was going up not coming down as I did this blog***)

Barcelona Apr 1-6 : Gaudi Tour Part 5 Up High

Now when I enter they wanted to know if it was a ticket or a ticket and a lift. I didn't want to do the lift not knowing about it. Luckily the girls in front of me were talking about it and I decided to do it. Well, who knew I was afraid of heights...well I knew, but doesn't stop me I guess just slows me down a bit.

Ok if you look at this picture I went up the right tower crossed over the bridge tiny bridge and walked down the left tower. It doesn't look that high, but it was high. Now this picture was taken zooming in.


This picture isn't. Those towers are 100 meters high (roughly 328 feet).


This is me at the top, totally freaking out. I was holding on to something at all times. I don't know why that calms me down a bit, but it does. It is not like if things decided to crumble I would survive.


This is the view out from where I am standing.


A view looking up from where I am standing.


This is the other tower and walking down the steps, you can take the elevator, but I decided to take the stairs to take pictures on the way down.


Here is some fruit and decorations on one of the wings being built. I believe in the background that is the Virgin Mary tower being built. When that one is done they will start on the Jesus tower which will be 170 meters high.


Here is a detail of the fruit.


Here is the bridge crossing the two towers I am on to the other two towers. You can see him on the first and second photo on this blog.


Here is a video at the top.

Barcelona Apr 1-6 : Gaudi Tour Part 4 Inside

The inside. I can tell you even if you see pictures you still go in there and you immediate reaction is to just tilt your head up and look up. It is quite spectacular. The inside is officially done, the outside is the only part that need to be completed.

As you walk in.


A look down the nave. On the left(where all those people are) is where I entered. On the right is the original Nativity scene Gaudi did.


At the other end of the nave which you can't tell in the picture, but it is quite golden where the sun is streaming in. You can see it in the above picture which is above the gold ring that has Jesus on a cross under it.


Has beautiful stained glass. This is from the opposite side I entered in which goes out toward the Nativity scene.


A close up of the stained glass.

Now the next pictures I took as the tour guide showed them to us. This is how Gaudi understood columns in the Sagrada Familia. He would take a sheet with hundreds of weights and he would pull and readjust until he was satisfied. Then he would take a picture, like the one below.


He would then take that picture and flip in upside down to see the columns he wanted to use in to structure. Now I don't get it completely, but he was well before his time in figuring out open space using the idea of a tree. So if you look at the above pictures of the Sagrada Familia you can kind of see a tree like structure at the top so there was less columns on the ground to block the view.

Barcelona Apr 1-6 : Gaudi Tour Part 3 Outside

Sagrada Familia was started by Gaudi, but he knew he wasn't going to finish it because of his age. He made sure that the molds and plans were left so others may finish his church for the sinners. Unfortunately, the Atheist took over Barcelona at one time and wanted to destroy all the churches. They wanted to destroy this one, but the bridge between the four towers which represent the bishops saved this church. So instead they destroyed Gaudi's workshop with all the plans and molds. Since then they have slowly found and put together molds and lost plans to give them an idea of what the church was originally going to look like, but the reason it is taking so long is because they can't figure out how to put in together. Gaudi was way beyond his time and even ours in constructing new ways of putting buildings together to create this and that kind of shape. In the next post I will show you how he created columns inside Sagrada Familia.

Let's look around the outside first. The original parts from Gaudi are still there. This church will show the different aesthetics due to the number of years this church has taken to be rebuilt and still continues today and for the next 30 years.

Of course have to show myself in front of it. Yep, I was there too. This was the original side that Gaudi worked on.


It shows the Nativity scene with the Christmas tree in the middle of the four bishops (which are the towers).


Closer view, but you can see the four bishops and the Christmas tree and so on.


Gaudi used real people to help depict these sculptures.


Closer look at the Virgin Mary and Joesph(?) on a donkey going to the manger. As the tour guide stated the man in real life had 6 toes so Gaudi included that into the statue.


This one has some story to it, can't remember. The babies you see are still born babies that Gaudi got from the morgue to use as models in this scene.

Now the other side of the building is newer and slightly weirder for me, but everyone has their own way of depicting their our aesthetic.

It took awhile for the builders on this side of the building to figure out the columns because none are straight up and down. I do like the columns.


This is were you enter hence a lot of people.


This is the art I was telling you, I reminds me of Star Wars with the bad guys in white plastic outfits.


A closer look.

Next blog will be in the inside.

Barcelona Apr 1-6 : Gaudi Tour Part 2

Now the Bakers house was very popular in that time. A man saw it and decided he wanted Gaudi to build a building from the ground up and make it better than the Bakers house. So Gaudi drew him a line drawing of the exterior of the building which was a rough black and white drawing. The man loved it thinking it would be better than the Bakers house.

Well it didn't turn quite like the owner wanted. This house is just down the street from the Bakers house. Do you think it looks better or similar to the Bakers house? Nope. Well neither did the owners and decided not to pay Gaudi for his work, well the court thought otherwise. Now Gaudi is a man that put little things here and there in the front of the building as a symbolism for what he thought of the owners.


It is quite a larger building and people thought this was ugly and harsh. They wanted it torn down. They all loved the Bakers house, but not this one.


Here is a close up.


Now as I said before about the symbolism, if you look at the middle balcony there is a bird in the middle. Now this bird creates its nest out of it own shit. It is called 'The Shitter Bird'. Also in another balcony he added a greek mask which shown that the owner was a Jackal and Mr. Hyde kind of guy. Let's just say Gaudi didn't like these people.


Now the doors were pretty cool this is looking out from the inside.


This is the door open, which was on my door blog too.


Interesting handle for these massive doors.


Shots of the inside. Gaudi liked smooth walls and wave like shapes on the ceiling.


Here it shows more of the curve from wall to the ceiling and the added curves near the columns.