The Travels of 4 Couch Potatoes: Barcelona Day 2

There was no sleeping in for us as we had 9 AM entry tickets to see Barcelona's quintessential landmark--the La Sagrada Familia. Construction of this immense cathedral was begun in 1882 and the work is still in progress to this day. The estimated date of completion is around 2030. This church is the signature work of Antoni Gaudí who took over as chief architect around 1884. Only 20% of it was completed when he died in 1926.

We took the subway from our apartment to the cathedral. With a half-an hour to kill before our entry time, we stopped at a nearby cafe for a quick coffee and pastries. It wasn't the smartest decision. We should have recognized that there was hardly any patrons in there. We payed more than double the regular prices for our food and drinks. It's bad enough that Barcelona is already a more expensive city than the rest of Spain. However, the price-gouging geared towards tourists was pretty low.

When we finally entered the La Sagrada Familia, I finally understood what all the hype was about. While its general shape is undeniably a cathedral, the details make it much different from all the other ones that we had seen throughout Spain. Every surface from the facade to the doors to the railings of the balconies were intricately decorated with elaborate carvings or embellishments. There have been countless tomes written on the La Sagrada Familia that go into much more detail than I ever could. Needless to say, the cathedral is worth a visit when in Barcelona.

Gaudí planned for the La Sagrada Familia to have a total of 18 towers. So far, eight have been constructed. We purchased additional tickets that gave us access to one of the towers that faced the city center. Fortunately, there are elevators that take visitors up to the towers.

The only way to get down from the towers is to walk down the stairs. It's a little scary as there is no railing that prevents access to the long drop down the center of the staircase.

Once we finished our tour of the tower and the interior, we exited out of the opposite end of the cathedral where the statues were more modern and more haunting.

After we finished our visit to the La Sagrada Familia, we walked several blocks through a light drizzle until we reached the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world. In an earlier life, this complex of buildings served as a major hospital for the city.

General Hospital, this is not.

The Recinte Modernista was built in the early 20th century at the site of the city's former hospital that dated back to the 1400's. Eventually this modern hospital closed, and the site has been converted into a museum.

Some of the buildings were still kept as they would have looked back when the complex was still a hospital. There were wardrooms with beds lined up for patients to convalesce.

The underground tunnels that connected the buildings were still accessible. Patients were discretely transported to different areas of the hospital through these passageways.

The most beautiful area in the entire complex was the old administration building. The ornately decorated interiors would have been an unexpected surprise for visitors to a hospital.

Conveniently, we hopped on a bus that took us directly to our next stop, Park Güell. This municipal park began as a failed housing development for the wealthy at the beginning of the 20th century. Antoni Gaudí moved into one of the Park Güell mansions in 1906 and lived there until he died. During that time, he put his architectural talents towards landscaping that focused on naturalist forms.

Flocks of monk parakeets inhabit various areas around Barcelona. They are very noticeable within Park Güell.

Only a few houses were ever built during the failed housing development phase. Gaudí's former home is now a museum which contains some of his furniture and memorabilia.

The Hypostyle Hall is a covered area with 86 fluted columns. Colorful mosaic domes decorate the ceiling. This area was originally designated to be a market.

Visitors are greeted by a large mosaic lizard as they climb the steps up from this area.

The roof of the market forms a terrace with plenty of mosaic-tiled benches for visitors to gaze upon the city below.

While Park Güell has the whimsical uniqueness to be a great place to visit, unfortunately it is ruined by people like us--tourists. The park is the second most popular attraction in Barcelona, drawing around ten thousand visitors a day. This overcrowding destroys the charm of the place. In 2013, the city instituted an entrance fee for foreign visitors and limited the number of visitors to 800 per hour. But in my opinion, there are still too many people. It's virtually impossible to take a photograph in the park without someone photo-bombing the picture. Even finding a seat on one of the terrace's benches took some patience.

After we tired of Park Güell, we took the bus back towards the Passeig de Gràcia. We stopped for a late lunch at the Boca Grande Restaurant.

Pan con tomate

Barrata cheese with tomato

Fried eggs with french fries, truffles, and pork belly

Galician razor clams

Fideau of fish, seafood, and saffron alioli

Paella marinera

Although the online reviews made the eatery sound good, we ended up having the worst meal of our entire time in Spain. The service was prompt and the bathroom decor was quite interesting. But the food was awful. The shellfish in our seafood paella and the razor clams tasted like they were a few days old.

A piano and a multitude of mirrors decorate the bathrooms downstairs.

After a disappointing lunch, we walked to two nearby Gaudí landmarks. The first was the Casa Mila, a multistory apartment complex build in the early 20th century. The architect designed it with such an unconventional form that locals ridiculed it and nicknamed it La Pedra meaning "the stone quarry." The stone facade is self-supporting leading to no load-bearing walls. This allowed the interiors to be altered easily without worry of collapse.

The central courtyard is open to the environment allowing for sunlight to illuminate the apartments and the lobby.

Casa Mila still has many occupants, but several areas have been set aside as a museum for visitors to tour. One of the apartments remains decorated like it would have been in its heyday. We were given an audio guide that was very long and informative. I managed to finish the tour before I reached the half way point on the audio guide.

The penultimate space in the Casa Mila is the loft. This was originally designed as a storage and laundry area for tenants. The overwhelming architectural feature on this level are the several catenary arches that represent an animal rib cage.

The most interesting level on the tour is the roof, with its bizarre structures that hide important functional features like vents, chimneys, and water tanks.

The second Gaudí building that we visited along the Passeig de Gràcia was the Casa Batlló. In 1906, the famed architect was hired by the wealthy Batlló family to renovate their existing multi-story building. He put his personal touches onto the building with multiple mosaics, caternary arches, and a general lack of straight lines. Once again, an audio guide was provided with our entry ticket. The narrator went into a little less detail compared to the Casa Mila, so my short attention span was able to tolerate this tour a little more.

We had a difficult time finding a place to eat for dinner. Throughout our trip, we had found that we could just show up at a well-rated restaurant or tapas bar and get seated with only a short wait. The popular Passeig de Gràcia area of Barcelona was completely different. Without a reservation, many of the places had an hour or more wait time for service. Having an unwieldy six people in our party made things worse. After striking out at several restaurants, we finally settled on a place called El Sifo d'en Garriga (the location has since closed). It's a snackbar-style eatery adjacent to a very popular restaurant.