Scaling Gaudi Heights

Following yesterday’s Gaudi extranfanza, we awoke very excited about seeing his final works of Sagrada Familia & Park Guell.

We decided to start our day with the Sagrada Familia. Despite our wanderful leaflet we were a bit concerned about finding our way, but as we soon relised it was a bit hard to miss!

The Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s most recognised project and obviously one of the major landmarks in Barcelona. Construction started on the cathredral in 1882 and is still continues to this day. One hundred & twenty three years on and the central dome and four of the 12 towers are still under construction. Although we did wander whether we would see it completed in our lifetime, appearantly there is a completion date set for 2045.
http://www.sagradafamilia.org/eng/index.htm

Although still very much a construction site we were able to walk around and appreciate the brilliance of Gaudi’s vision. We decided to take the lift up one of the towers. At 95 metres tall we knew that the view was going to be amazing. After an hour of queuing and the two minute / 2 euro lift ride we were on top of Gaudi’s world.

Through the small openings we could see the details of various fruits, strawberies, blackcurrents & oranges at the pinacles of the nave. We were also surprised to see that some of the decoration on the towers was made out of recycled bottles and broken tiles. The views of Barcelona were also wonderful and in the distance we could see the new Jean Nouvel tower.

Coming down the tower was quite an experience especially towards the bottom where the spiral staircase became very steep and narrow and there was no handrail to hold on to! Grigoria was humming all the way down and I just took it a step at a time!

In the vaults of the Sagrada Familia there was an exhibition about Gaudi’s work which included a number of models for the church. Unfortunately a lot of his original material was lost in two fires but a number of replicas were made from old photos.

Our next destination, Park Guell, was only a short metro ride away. To Grigoria’s relief the Spanish have installed a number of escalators taking visitors up the hill. The first stop was the piazza, on top of the market, which was full of tourists.

After a bit of food we strolled in the market, saw the famous cameleon (which was impossible to photograph without a total stranger being in the picture) and heard a band play under the upper viaduct. Although the park was originally meant to be a small village only two houses were build before funds run out, one of which is today the Gaudi museum.