Roxy y El Arte de Perderse: Weekend trip to BARCELONA!

Last week-end, on a whim, Becky convinced me to take life by the tusks and go to Barcelona. And what a trip!! I think the main lesson learned was that, sometimes, tourists, look up from your map. You can best meet a city by moving your head side to side and walking wherever the streets lead you :)
Friday morning: HELLO BARCELONA!! First impression...it's like 5 Valencias pushed into one city.
Our first target was the internationally famous Sagrada Familia...but we had to get there first.

But THEN...there it was!! In all its intricate beauty!

Started in 1882, it's still only about 1/3 completed (see diagram on left; brown=completed, white=yet to be constructed)...and the highest tower is yet to come! Its original mastermind, Gaudi, made the Sagrada his life acheivement. The current architect, his best friend's son, is the white haired man in the lower right hand picture! Above, you can see the front facade of the Sagrada, recently graced with the name "basilica" by the Pope in the early 2000's. To be called a "basilica", a cathedral must demonstrate exceptional work and basically rock.

Below are some details of the facade...Not all are pictured, because basically every three statues have their own significance and story!

The more modern architect of today added fruit to the top of these towers...must have been around 2 pm that day.

The central tower yet to be built is higher than these!! It will be the tallest religious monument in the world. Planned completion in 2025, I believe.

Examples of the beauty of the other facade of the Sagrada Familia...notice the beautiful blue!

The inside of the humongous cathedral. A more modern twist on Cathedral building, I'd say...

We climbed to the top of one of those towers. Yes, I hate heights, but Barcelona lying at your feet is worth the climb!

Next, we travelled to Gaudi's other masterpiece, the Parque Guëll! Such a peaceful, dream-like atmoshpere that makes you feel like you cartwheeled into Willy Wonka's neighborhood, where even the cacti seem to match the eccentric designs of the bridges and houses!

And the exquisite view...

"And we're the three best friends that anybody could have, and we're the three best friends..."

And here is Gaudi's house! The exterior matches the man on the inside. On the bottom is an example of mosaics, found everywhere in the park.

The famous gecko/dragon, and his new best friend Roxy :)

I thought my photography skills should match Gaudi in creativity...

And after this...my camera died :(
Saturday, after a somewhat late start (due to the attractiveness of the Barcelonian clubs/night life), we took a paseo down La Rambla, a very long pedestrian street that is flooded with tourists buying flowers, admiring the street performers, and picking up art at the many stands. The locals don't actually hang around here...but we know we don't look like locals (yet), so we did ;)

At one end of the Rambla is the port, coronated by this statue of Christopher Colombus pointing towards his discovery (El Mirador de Colon). I am in love with this picture (bottom right)!

And Aslan watches over the city.

Then we walked to a nationally (if not internationally) famous market called el Mercado de la Boceria, known for its fresh produce and innumerable stands selling goods of all sorts!!

Meats...

Fruit...

Dried fruit and nuts....

...CHOCOLATE....

(I couldn't bring myself to buy--much less eat--either of these...for different reasons.)

Weird fruit....try naming all of these!

Nougat and other Spanish delicacies...

When we had bought the next day's lunch and finally tore ourselves from the Market, we realized most museums had probably closed. But did we go home? NO! And that's when alllll our good karma was put to use, because the city opened up and we discovered things that probably weren't labeled on any tourist's map.

A Roman wall.