Sunday, January 19, 2014

Barcelona: Part One / Sagrada Familia

It's definitely at times like this when I really appreciate the more-awesome days of my life.

Now that I finally have some true down-time, I've had the chance to go back and organize some pictures and catch up on some blog posts I failed to work on months ago.

We went to Barcelona back in April, and it of course deserved a blog post, but there was just so much to process that it all seemed overwhelming and I didn't want to do a half-assed post. So I ended up barely posting at all.

Well I've finally organized the pictures. So here begins a series of four of five posts on our epic trip.

We arrived from Amsterdam to the Hotel Alma. A beautiful modern hotel in the heart of L'Eixample, the fabulous fancy area of the city.


Our rooms had fingerprint access only. It was so cool.


Upon arrival we hit up our neighborhood tapas bar.


Tee, being super Asian, ordered something fishy...



We also had croquetas, a staple of pretty much every meal to come.



YUM.


This blood sausage pasta was surprising delicious...


After snacks we went back to our room to unpack. It was a purty room.



I don't know what happened next. Maybe we just went to sleep. Oh wait, I remember, we went for drinks at some rooftop bar. It was cool. I didn't bring my camera. Whatever. After that we went to sleep. When we woke up we had breakfast. This is what breakfasts look like in Spain. I love.


We decided to hit the Sagrada Familia early to avoid a long wait.

The Sagrada Familia is the most famous site in Barcelona, possibly in all of Spain.

It is Gaudi's famous Basilica which has been under construction since 1882 and is STILL only halfway complete.

It is the most incredible building I have ever seen and if you are ever near Spain you MUST go visit it. It will change your life and inspire you to do great things.


Yes you read that correctly. It has been under construction for over 100 years and is still only halfway finished. Mind-blowing.




We were like the first people there and still there was a massive line.


Being in line so long gave us plenty of time to admire the exterior though. This thing is MASSIVE.


Princesses just LOVE waiting in line...



The detail is just incredible. The different sides of the church have different facades all done in different styles. Photographs can't even convey the scale of this all...it is crazy.



But walking inside is where it really blows you away...


The place is eerily quiet even though it is filled with hundreds of visitors as people are just walking around looking up in awe.




We spent several hours here.



The architecutre - amazing. The stained glass - out of this world. And the light hit different areas of the room very dramatically. This looks like something out of Indiana Jones...it almost doesn't seem real.


See these four spires? Well there are currently eight of them.

When the church is complete, there will be EIGHTEEN.



In the basement is a workshop, among other things, where they build models and stuff, since the church is a constant work-in-progress.

There's also a museum showing the history of the church and it is absolutely fascinating.


We opted to take a tour of one of the spires as well.



You only get to go halfway up, but it's still pretty high. And somehow there's an elevator.





You half to walk down though...


SOYYYY incredible.


I definitely plan to go back once it's completed!


No comments:

Post a Comment