Lamppostings

Had another lovely breakfast, so nice to have that to look forward to each day. Good coffee, good food, fantastic company, and so much laughter.

About 25 years ago, when Colin and I were living in London, we got free tickets to fly to Barcelona. We didn’t have a particularly strong desire to visit, but, free tickets? Let’s go! We fell in love with the city, with the architecture, with Gaudi, and with the La Sagrada Familia in particular and dreamed of returning when it was complete, which, at the time, they estimated would be in 2023. It’s still not complete, but we were so excited to return and to share our joy with the boys and with our friends. I was also a bit concerned that it wouldn’t be as amazing as I remembered.

We headed off to Sagrada Familia. We were a bit short on time to get there, so we race walked thru the city. Amazing to see the temple as we approached. It was super crowded. Went thru security and then made it to the front. We started our audio tour. Love having someone give more information. The building is overwhelming. The Nativity entrance is so beautiful and multi-faceted. Flowers cover the doors. Scenes from Jesus’ early life. Animals, nature. The sculptures of people are based on real people that Gaudi used as models, people from his neighborhood. Each face looks real in the sense of truly human.

We took a break from our audio tour and got in line for going up the Passion Tower. We rode the elevator to the top (when Colin and I were here 25 years ago, we walked up). The views from the top were incredible, seeing the Towers up close, seeing the work still happening, seeing the City from above.
We took the stairs down, narrow, spiral, no handrails.

When we got to the bottom, we took some time to sit and reflect. My heart was so full and I wrote for a while – thoughts about the Church, the Community Center, us as believers. We then resumed our audio tour and I just started weeping. So overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

After we finished the tour, we went into a small chapel that is reserved for prayer and I continued to cry. So thankful that we are experiencing this with each other, with our friends. Thankful that the boys are able to see and experience this trip. I wrote down lots of stuff while I was there that I can share elsewhere.

We wandered some more, inside and out. The Passion Facade is full of sculptures like the Nativity Facade, but they are all very angular and stark, in the Cubist style – emphasizing Christ’s road to death. The Glory Facade is still being worked on and is not up yet.

Went to the Museum, and finally when it was time to go, we walked around the outside one more time.

We decided to head to Park Guell. We wanted to find a supermarket to get stuff for a picnic at the park. We saw that there were several “super mercados” along the way. Turns out that super mercado can mean a corner shop, not necessarily a full grocery store. The park is at the top of a hill so we did a lot of climbing – we were all tired and hot. The Sagrada Familia was spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically rich. I was so thirsty. We found a few things in a shop and finally made it to the Park only to find out that they were sold out of tickets. So we found some stairs to sit on right outside of the park and proceeded with our picnic. We were pretty bummed, but I think it was a blessing in disguise as we were all so worn out, the Park would have been too much to take in and appreciate.

We headed back to our hotel and took some time to rest in our rooms before meeting up again. We rambled around a bit. We ended up at a Westfield Shopping Mall, as you do. We had a lovely and unusual dinner of sandwiches and pastries from a shop using an app that Graeme has called Too Good To Go which lets shops and restaurants offer surprise bags of food that would normally be thrown out. For 6 euros we got at least 6 yummy sandwiches to share. We also got a slice of pizza, some gourmet cookies and, of course, empanadas. Then we found a bar with outside seating to sit and drink some Sangria. Lots of laughter and chatting, sharing memories, deep conversations.

I have really enjoyed the pace – not too early in the morning, some siesta/downtime in the afternoons, late nights. I think we’re all pretty tired still though. Colin and I have been waking up super early and not able to go back to sleep.

Lots of dogs in Barcelona.

Looking back on our visit to the Sagrada Familia, it did not disappoint. If you ask any of the four of us what the single highlight “attraction” that we visited, we will all say Sagrada Familia. It was deeply moving for me and I can talk about it at length and will write about it more later.