barcelona, day 4

sacrada familia


the only major site that we did not yet visit here in barcelona was the sacrada familia, which is a large church that gaudi designed. just like the rest of the things we saw by gaudi, it has a very organic feel to it, and looks like something out of one of the ‘alien’ films. the construction on the building began in the 1880s, and it is still not completed. this is a fact that i cant quite come to terms with, since it seems to be an important enough piece of architecture (it is a large church, afterall; however, there is already a cathedral in barcelona). i know that the cathedral that went up in los angeles, once construction was started, took less than five years to complete (it is also a neat piece of contemporary architecture, but much more simple in design than the sacrada).

anyway, we paid to go up the towers. there was construction everywhere, with cranes and everything all around (however, being that today was monday, actual workers were conspicuously absent). so we walked up the stairs of one of the towers that was already completed (there are eight that are done, and another four are to come). there wasnt really an observation deck, or anything like that, so i did quite understand why they were allowing us to go up; we simply went up and then down, taking whatever pictures we could on the way. because the stairs were spiral, there werent two good handrails (only one), and on the way down, paola got very scared., and even cried. she later said that she hated the stupid ugly church. in any case, i thought it was neat, and because it is not done, cannot be compared, or placed side by side with other churches that we have visited (they werent even able to conduct mass in the church because of the construction, and as such, there was nothing really to look at except for the outside facade; i could only justify the admission that we paid by hoping that it would go towards the finishing of the church, which probably wont be done for another hundred years at the rate taht these people are building it).

just like every other city that we have toured, once we have seen all of the interesting sites, we are ready to move on, no matter how charming the city was when we first arrived (each has been charming upon first arrival, and each has gotten boring by the time we see everything that we want to).

today is basically our last day in europe touring. tomorrow we fly from barcelona to london, basically just to sleep there so we can fly home on wednesday. it has been a good trip so far, but i think that we are just about ready to go home. in fact, we have been waiting to go home since we were in paris. i think that after all our walking around and touring (my feet have finally started to hurt (but, following my dad’s age old advice, i tied my shoes and they feel better), and i have developed a calous on one of my toes that started out as a blister that was not taken care of. i also think that it was a good idea for me to come back about half a week before having to work again, as opposed to two days that i had originally wanted.