Month: May 2013

What a beautiful day full of Gaudi we’ve had today. And to start it all off, it was warm and sunny enough for me to wear shorts for the first time in the whole trip!

It turns out our hotel is about two blocks from the main street along which Gaudi structures are sprinkled. Very nearby is the Casa Mila (aka La Pedrera):

We checked it out from the street, but decided to wait on the full tour since it’s close enough to squeeze in whenever we have a time slot to fill.

From there, it was only about three blocks down to the Manzana de la Discordia (‘block of discord’), which contains buildings from each of four of
Barcelona’s most famous ‘modernisme’ architects, all very different. The most famous of which is Gaudi’s Casa Batlló.

I’ve always been struck by photos I’ve seen of this building, but now that I’ve seen it in person, I’m simply in love. It is the most amazing building, as a whole, that I’ve ever seen. Nary a straight line in the place, and the entire thing was built from a clay model built by Gaudi himself; there were no building plans whatsoever! He personally oversaw every step of the construction. And there are so many innovative touches, from the huge light and air shafts in the middle, to the catenary curved arches in the roof structure, to the sheer craftsmanship throughout; wood, glass & tile, all absolutely stunning.

I’m just going to show you a string of photos and let them speak for themselves…

Whew! Astounding, eh?

Despite being almost wiped out by that your, we managed to cram three more of his works in before the day was done. First, an early building called Casa Calvet:

Then, a quick bus ride toward the mountains to take in the monumental Parc Güell:

(We plan to go back early Wednesday morning to try and beat the crowds…)

Lastly, on the way back to our hotel to rest up before our 10 pm dinner, we swung by Casa Vicens, another early work…

Such great stuff.

It’s now well past midnight, and we hope to get to the Sagrada Familia in time to be in line when it opens. Wish us luck…

Today was mostly a travel day, though we did manage to squeeze in a stop in the lovely town of Getaria, about a half hour directly west of San Sebastián along the coast. Jorge & Meredith had read about it (in the New York Times no less), and it did not disappoint.

When we got there, the weather was drizzly and gray, but we had to check out the beach regardless…

How about another panorama?

…and a close-up of the giant cubes of rock they use for rip-rap:

We walked all the way around the harbor to the other side, and I took this shot looking back over the boats to the town itself..

Since it was Mother’s Day in the US, we thought we should go out for lunch to celebrate the two Moms in our group. The view from the center of town called for another panorama (are you getting sick of these yet?):

After scouting out restaurants, we found a nice seafood place and had an excellent meal of a variety of fresh fish. What a treat to eat fish that had likely been caught quite recently in that very town!

Here’s how another restaurant down the street was grilling their wares:

From there, J&M drove us to the airport in Bilbao to catch our flight to Barcelona. All went reasonably smoothly along the way, and we are now ensconced in our hotel, quite near the core of old downtown. We even saw our first Gaudi building (in Barcelona) just a few blocks from here.

Now it’s time for a good night’s sleep, as we have a lot of things to pack into the next three days. Talk to you tomorrow!