"Where ya goin?" "Barcelona."

Took the overnight train to my first architectural mecca, Barcelona. (Let me tell you that the night train was no fun, as I was sitting in a very small seat that did not recline for 12 hours. I slept regardless, but if you are thinking about it...maybe not.) Anyway, in my exhausted daze, I could not for the life of me figure out why I could not understand the people speaking in Barcelona or the signs around. Later I was reminded that they speak Catalan in Barcelona...very much like French I was told because that area of Spain was under Charlemagne way back in the day. Ah well, close enough.
For the first day, I wandered up Las Ramblas to the info center to book a walking tour and then stumbled back to a metro stop to meet up with Laurel, one of the girls from Granada, and we decided to do a non-thinking trip to Mont Juc, a nearby hill, called the Mountain of the Jews, which was considered a place of political and military power over the years. Franco used the fort at the top as a questioning and holding place. Took the funicular and air tram to the top (nice views of the city and the beach!) and wandered our way down to the Olympic stadium and museum. If you are into the Olympics, this museum is awesome, and no one knows about it. It was designed in a great way, leading you through a timeline of the Olympics and its sports to a main area where you could see movies, peruse pictures, and do all sorts of interactives games. The stadium looked very tiny, but it held the 1992 Olympic Games, so it must be huge. I vaguely remember this games, but I know it most from the opening ceremonies when the archer took a flaming arrow and lit the torch a few hundred feet above him. Saw the torch tower...an amazing feat. Wandered to a huge castle looking thing which we found out was the Museum of Catalan Art...also amazing! It was a very comprehensive look at Catalan art and traditions through the years. Hidden jewels, I tell you. Ate at the Hard Rock Cafe...again, a situation where they keep the same number for their prices, just not the same monetary sign.

Got up the next day early for a tour of the Barri Gotic, the Gothic district, and oldest distric in Barcelona. It was a great tour of the area with a lot of history from when the Romans were around and all the different monarch families. Our tour guide ended at a shop and told us to order orxata, which I had never heard of. It's a drink from a nut from around the Barcelona area...kind of like a coconut, I would guess. It's a milky drink that tastes SO good. If you are ever in the area, or see it in an international food store, try it! I'm hooked. Met up with Laurel again, who had seen the Picasso Museum (I don't like Picasso, so I didn't go...) to start on my Gaudi pilgrimage. Started off with the Casa Batllo (yes, pictures are coming), and discovered another house, next to it, designed by one of Gaudi's contemporaries, Lluis Domenech i Montaner, who seemed like a guy I should know. Turns out he designed what is now my favorite building in the world...read on to find out what! La Casa Batllo is just stunning! I love what Gaudi did with the living spaces and the glass and the curves. Headed on to the Casa Mila, or the Pedrera, which is an apartment complex. Very good museum on the top floor of Gaudi's work. Then we walked over to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's "crowning" work. Laurel didn't want to pay to go in, but I decided to, so we parted ways, and I went to discover what this building, which is STILL in construction, is really all about. It was really interesting to see it in construction, because you usually only get to see buildings and masterpieces finished. To see it in progress was a great experience because some of it is totally done and other parts are still open to the sky. It's massive and filled to the brim with decoration. Not quite sure what I think of it yet...maybe a little too much...but I think I would like to go back when it's done for a final judgement. Walked around its towers for a bit and then decided to head back to work out some future travel things.
The next day was a packed day of sight seeing, started at a beautiful cathedral, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar, which is in the Barri Gotic, but not as famous as the main Cathedral. Of course, I then visited the Cathedral, which is gorgeous inside, but is being renovated on the outside. Decided that I would spend the day walking around Gaudi's Park Guell, which I am going to say is a huge disappointment. There isn't much there...the main patio area with the famous park bench is of dirt with nothing around. The cave-like walkways are cool, but they only lead a very short way. The lizard, which is like an icon of Gaudi, is tiny, and the museum is not that great. All in all...got out very early, so I decided to go by the Casa Vincens, another of Gaudi's works, and the Dragon gate, another icon that everyone knows. I couldn't get into the Casa V, but I took the metro out to the middle of nowhere to get to the Dragon Gate, which is in front of Palau Guell. No one was around. I didn't see one tourist or even one person recognize that the gate was there, and it's AWESOME! So the Dragon and I became friends for 15 minutes...we took pictures together...growled together...you know, best friend things. I think it was my favorite Gaudi piece in all of Barcelona. Ended my day there.
The next day is what I call "theater" day. Started off with a tour of the Theater Liceu, the second largest opera house in Europe next to the one in Paris. It's absolutely gorgeous. The auditorium has been plagued with fires, so nothing is original, but it is still beautiful. And the stage...it's huge. I mean...huge. I would love to design for a theater like that...On the tour, they took us into the Circle Club, which is a very private club off the Hall of Mirrors, which has the most gorgeous paintings I've ever seen. Very Toulouse Lautrec, but not him. I'll have to figure out the name. And the modernissme detailing of the rooms were beautiful. Headed to my next theater, the Palau de la Musica Catalana...this is my new favorite building in the world. Designed by Lluis from before, it's a garden of music with flower details everywhere, pink glass to filter the light, ceramic muses of music rising out of their mosaic skirts wall behind the stage, the most breath-taking procsenium arch with pastoral, classical, and modern music depicted in a forest scene, Beethoven's head between columns, and the ride of the Valkaries, and to top it all off, a stained glass sun with angels at the top. Sounds over-done, and many people think so, but it's just so breath-taking that I fell in love with it straight away. Decided to go back that night for a concert to see how the accoustics are...they are great. It was a concert of a Weber piece, Schumann's Cello Conerto with a great soloist!, and Brahams 4. Beautiful concert, beautiful concert hall. If you go to Barcelona...GO HERE! If you couldn't tell by now, I'm a lover of art noveau, called in Barcelona, the modernissme movement. Everything I saw from this movement in Barcelona was gorgeous...I will have to research it much more. Yeah.
The Palau was my last thing in Barcelona, and what an ending it was!

Heading off to France...for a night...