Hello, Barcelona!! If you’ve been following along with the last few blog posts, you know by now that we recently visited Spain and after a quick trip to Valencia, we followed it up with five days in Barcelona. Those five days really flew by because there’s so much to do and see in Barcelona!
Spain’s Regions and Language
If you haven’t been to Spain, then you may not realize that it is actually made up of 17 autonomous regions. Each region/community has its own capital city and regional government. Does this sound vaguely familiar, Americans?
Barcelona is the capital city of region called Catalonia. (Valencia is the capital city of a region called València.)
An interesting fact about Spain is that there are regional language/tongues. What we learn as “spanish” is actually castilian spanish (aka castellano) which originated in the province of Castile in central Spain. In Catalonia, they speak catalan as well as castilian spanish. Though catalan feels familiar as a romance language, it is a distinct language and is spoken fairly narrowly in only three regions in Spain. In fact, catalan versus spanish can be a heated debate as some people use this as their first language and have a great sense of nationalistic pride to their identity. In Barcelona, because there is such a blend of catalan, castilian spanish and english, signs are often written in all three languages. Though most everyone speaks castilian spanish and english, they certainly will appreciate if you learn to say a few words in catalan!
Architecture
Barcelona may be most known for its architecture. It is a beautiful city with stunning old buildings, small winding streets.
One interesting thing I noticed looking at satellite maps of the city is that each block is generally built around a central courtyard. As you saw in last week’s post, this was a lovely feature of the hotel we stayed in. It’s apparently part of the basic city structure of each block. Fascinating!
If you go to Barcelona for architecture, you will absolutely become an admirer of Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí is a famous Catalan architect who championed catalan modernism. The most astonishing and notable things about his later building is their undulating and curving forms. He is also the primary architect of La Sagrada Familia, a church which is still being built (as yet unfinished) in the heart of Barcelona. I’ll get to that in a minute.
I’ll admit that despite my fascination with Gaudí on my first visit to Barcelona in 2009, I wasn’t drawn into his work. I only visited La Sagrada Familia and though I was astonished by the grandeur of it, I was ambivalent about the design. On a second visit to both the church and his other buildings, I am a big, big fan! Even if his work isn’t your thing, you will definitely be able to admire the uniqueness of his vision and approach.
La Pedrera
Let me start with Casa Milà (aka La Pedrera). This was built between 1906 and 1912. This is the building that was on the same block as our hotel. I failed to grab a full photo of it so here’s a nice one from Wikipedia.
The self-guided tour is worth the additional fee and I strongly recommend it. It walks you through the building and provides language specific narration at specific checkpoints. There is also a daytime and nighttime tour. You can only get to the apartment (totally worth it!) during the day. The nighttime has some beautiful, moody lighting which we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy from our hotel balcony.
The daytime tour with self-guided audio was 27,00 Euros per person. Had we planned again, we could have saved a little bit of money but it was well worth it.
The tour starts on the roof which might sound like an odd place to start, but it’s magical! Access uses an elevator to go up but you have the option to take stairs down for the remainder of the tour.
The natural inspiration carries through all of the elements of the rooftop. There are four doorways which represent the elements of earth, air, water, and fire. There are also “chimneys” on the roof that stand guard over the structure. These sentinels look strangely like something from Star Wars or the Mandalorian. It’s uncanny.
Of course, my silly perspective was “How did Gaudí know?! It’s far more likely that someone who worked on Star Wars was inspired by these magnificent “statues”!
I don’t quite know how to put the space into words but I can say if I lived in this building as a kid, I would LIVE on the roof!!
Undulating roof line 
Doorways and sentinels 
Hidden views and vistas
As you walk into the building from the top down, you get to see the interior structure (it looks like ribs of a whale). There’s a presentation here that’s worth the couple of minutes it takes to watch. It goes into the nature inspirations Gaudí drew from for structures!
The apartment (if it’s open when you visit) holds up well to modern times. I’d happily live in this light-filed, gorgeous space. The central courtyard to the building ensures that the spaces are flooded with natural light while also feeling private and protected. I don’t want to overwhelm you with details so here are some images to whet your appetite!
Courtyard 
Looking down 
Looking up (from the first floor) 
Bedroom 
Bathroom 
Dining Room
La Sagrada Familia
Wow. I barely know where to start on this Gaudí project. So as I mentioned before, this project is not complete but was started in 1882. Read that again.
It’s one of the most astonishing feats because it is still being built in our lifetime. It’s slated to be done in the next five or ten years so I recommend you try to see it while it’s still under construction. The size and details of this church are mind blowing. Most of the time when we see these magnificent buildings they were finished long before we ever step foot inside. This one I’ve seen in various states of construction. Four generations of craftspeople have worked on this project! Can you imagine working on the same project your great grandparents started working on? Mind blowing!
When I went in 2009, we were able to climb up into the upper levels of the church in a small spiral staircase. This time the main nave is complete as are the internal supporting columns. Most notably, the stain glass is now visible on the interior where it used to be covered with sheeting. Here are some teaser photos for you but it is ever evolving!
Passion Facade from the South 
Passion Facade from the Southwest 
Nativity Facade from the Northeast 
Nativity Facade detail
Though we could really only see the nave on this visit, the support columns were finally done. They use a branching structure inspired by trees. This allows extremely high vaulted ceilings WITHOUT the use of external flying buttresses on other churches of the time. The build has been going on for so long that it has benefited from modern technology like 3D cutters as well. It’s breathtaking. The nave bathed in the light coming in through the gradiated stained glass casts a stunning rainbow inside the building. It’s like living inside a prism!
Nave 
Nave (see people for scale) 
Perspective View 
Stained Glass (straight on) 
Stained Glass (side view)
Our Walk About
Much of what we did was just wandering about the city. We’d look up cute little restaurants, markets, shops, statues, churches, parks, or other sights that seemed interesting. It’s a great walking city but bring good shoes! We didn’t do any shopping because the weather was perfect for wandering. We never made it to the beach since it was winter but I do recommend you check it out if you are there in warmer weather!
We hit some standard tourist sites:
- Las Ramblas – a large boulevard which used to boast a bit open air (tourist trap) market. It’s a very subdued experience now during the pandemic and didn’t have the vibrancy I recalled from earlier years.
- Mercat de la Boqueria – a covered market off Rambla that has an impressive array of meats and fish, vegetables, cheeses, prepared foods, spices, and much more. I was most excited for a bright colorful candy display that I couldn’t resist. The owner was a friendly Australian transplant who talked to us about the impact of the pandemic on his business. I couldn’t resist the brightly colored sweets. So tasty! So sweet!
- Barrio Gótico – the gothic quarter is an old section of town with little winding streets and amazing buildings. George and I fell in love with this slightly more gritty section of the city and vowed to spend more time there if we ever return.
Mercat de la Boqueria 
Candy Stand 
Spiral Potatoes
Barrio Gótico 
Catedral de Barcelona
Barcelona is a beautiful city to visit and we found the people friendly and pleasant. It may have been partly because we felt a little starved for human contact and adventure but we had a thoroughly lovely time. One of our favorite moments was finding a little punk rock pizza place near our hotel. The server was darling and the food was just what we wanted. Even a weird little “american joint” called CocoVail ended in a delightful conversation with a group of young women from Dubai who strongly encouraged us to go visit their city. My adventure travel pump is primed for some good trips in 2022!
Though we really recommend going to visit Barcelona, if we find ourselves back in Spain again, we will try to branch out to see new areas, particularly the surrounding countryside.
All photos taken by @mobtowngeorge unless otherwise noted.
