We left the dry, oven heat of Madrid for the balmy, humid heat of the Mediterranean port, Barcelona. We start every new city off with a search for a local market to stock up on groceries. We bought enough food at the most recent stop to earn a free bottle of wine. The cashier couldn't understand why I didn't want it, so I finally convinced the woman behind us in line that I really did want to give it to her as a gift. She probably had stories to tell about the crazy American lady throwing away perfectly good vino.
We began our Barcelona touring with La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's 131-year-old continuing project. Definitely the highlight of our trip so far, it is so different from any other cathedral architecture that it can't even really be compared. Being there was incredibly moving. I feel that Gaudi was an artist and a genius, but also devout and inspired to design a structure that paid tribute to the Creator. Although he worked on it for the last 40 years of his life, Gaudi understood he would never see its completion. His work seems to me not about ego but about devotion. The Nativity Facade where you enter, done in the "Modernisma" style is intricately detailed, ornamented with sculptures from nature along with the traditional elements of the Nativity story, emphasizing that all creation witnesses the glory of God. The colors are mostly earth tones outside with pops of color, but as you walk inside you feel like you've entered a colorful rain-forest. As Anna said, "It's like walking into a pop-up book." The light from the stained-glass windows creates a feeling of a tree canopy to the interior. We watched an informational video about the cathedral and wandered around in awe before exiting the opposite side to look at the western "Passion" facade. The sculpture of the story of Christ's last week is done by a contemporary artist and is powerful and symbolic. We spent a long time figuring out the different parts of the story as told in angular and chiseled forms -- from Judas's kiss of betrayal to Peter's denial to the agony of Golgotha, the artist captures so much emotion in a modern and un-cluttered aesthetic. We spent more than 2 hours at the cathedral, and have found ourselves taking walks there in the evenings to enjoy the exteriors again almost every night. It seems improbable that it will be completed by the projected 2026 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. But if it is, I certainly hope to return to see the finished work.
In the afternoon, we decided to see more of Gaudi's civic sculpture at the Parc Guell. Luckily we didn't go there during the hottest part of an extremely hot day...oh wait, that's exactly what we did. Despite the heavy, humid heat, we found the park whimsical and an interesting look into another aspect of Gaudi's creative expression. He created walkways designed to be like the interior of a surfer's wave, wavy benches that are ergonomically comfortable to sit in, and aqueducts that were practical and also artistic.
On Friday, we headed downtown to Plaza de Catalunya to go on a Barcelona City Walk. We listened to an audio recording and walked around for about 90 minutes, learning about famous and important spots in both old and new Barcelona. We saw the "layers" of the city from the Roman foundations including parts of a temple to Caesar, the medieval layer including the Cathedral and other Gothic architecture, the modernisma and early Picasso-era sights and the modern layer of commerce and resurgence of "Catalan" culture. Repressed during the Franco Era, Barcelona as the center of Catalunya is like the "Ireland of Spain." Their language was forbidden during the Franco regime, so now all schools are conducted in Catalan -- tricky for us since we were beginning to feel at least competent with our Spanish. They fly more Barcelona flags than Spanish ones, and even provocative flags that include the star from Cuba's flag -- a message that independent Cuba was able to break away from Spain. We finished the walk and back-tracked to "Las Ramblas" to find lunch in "La Boqueria." We have all enjoyed these markets and the "treasure hunt" of finding our own lunches in the stalls. We followed lunch with a visit to Barcelona's Picasso Museum. Exiled of his own will while his native Spain was under Fascist control, most of Picasso's work is in France and other museums. However, this is the best collection of his early work as he began his study here. Some of his later work has found its way back to Barcelona in this collection as well. It was a great tour, and we especially enjoyed his "Las Meninas" Collection. Having had the privilege of seeing Velazquez's original in Madrid just days before, we found Picasso's obsessive studies of the work fascinating. It was also informative to see Picasso's early experimentation in many different styles.
After a long, hot day, we took a much-needed rest back at our apartment then headed to Montjuic in the evening. We took the "funicular" up the hillside and then rode in a cable car to the top of the hill where the castle-fortress is located. Then we took a wandering, down-hill stroll back to town passing museums, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, parks, fountains, 1929 World Fair buildings, and the old Bullfighting Ring-turned mall.
Sunday, we attended church at the local building and found it to be a bustling and crowded facility with 3 wards. We could barely find a place to sit. Two full-time missionaries spoke; I find I can keep up better with their Spanish than with the natives. They did a great job. It occurred to me while listening to them in a way it never has before what an act of faith and humility it is to serve a mission in an unfamiliar language. We spoke to a few other missionaries after the meeting who knew Hermana Seattle Sperry from our hometown and told them to pass on a hello from her former "Ma and Pa." The rest of the day we took a much needed rest. Some of my children may not be used to the marathon pace of their mother. In the evening, Cory and I strolled down to the Sagrada Familia again and ran into 2 more sister missionaries on the street who were thrilled to know we knew Hermana Sperry and showed us pictures they had taken with her just a few days earlier.
Monday, when we'd eaten breakfast and gotten ready, we headed to the beach! Anna was thrilled. She LOVES being in the water and has been missing her summer swimming. Cory and I started off with a run along the boardwalk. Barcelona isn't a "runner-friendly" place so we decided to take advantage of a straight, traffic-free running surface. It was so hot and humid that you could wring our clothes out by the end, but we got it done. We enjoyed the day splashing and floating in the salty Mediterranean, and ate a fancy seafood lunch at a restaurant on the beach. We all got sunburns of one degree or another, but there's nothing like the beach to lift everyone's spirits. Anna said it was her best day of the trip so far. Sun-burned, and sun-tired, we headed home to clean up and pack up.
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