It is only on reflection that walking for 9 hours 3 days in a row seems like a stupid idea... but let's contemplate the wiseness of decisions made and actions taken a little later. Today was all about Gaudi: Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell. We started off by once again murdering the Spanish/Catalan language at our local pastry shop. We can now ask for two coffees, two chocolate croissants and finally the bill. We throw in lots of 'pleases', 'thank yous' and 'excuse mes', JUST DON'T ASK US ANYTHING! Ask us how we are, where we are sitting, if we have the 20 cents and it all goes to HELL! Squealling, blushing and madly confering with each other in English is all part of our 'Englishman abroad' charm (although they never seem to find as charming as we'd hoped...)
Our little apartment is within viewing distance of the Sagrada Familia, so we wandered their first. We joined the bus loads (and we literally mean bus loads!) of tourists at the 'passion facade'.
This section depicts the last week of Jesus's life: judus kiss, the roman centurian who pierced jesus's side, the denial of Christ before the rooster crowed, the flagellation of Christ and of course the crucifiction. Anyone with even a bit of new testament knowledge will get it and for those who don't there is the audio guided tour. It's a bit pre vatican council two but it is none the less impressive.
We entered 'the temple' where scaffolding competes with the completed work as to which is more impressive. The light filtering through the windows onto the scaffolding was a sight to behold.
A sharp intake of breath and eyes raised we took in the awesome ceiling and central nave. It is hard to pay the deference that no doubt Gaudi wanted to the buidling (and to the good lord) when hundreds of you are packed into the tiny public access space, but after a tour of the whole temple and museum we kind of got where he was coming from and it is a beautiful place. From all accounts Gaudi appears to be a genuinally pious man viewing the earth and all of us on it as God's creation and therefore divine(even us aetheists).
We then continued on 'ally and douglas's great walking tour' hoofing it approx 3.5 km up hill from the temple to the park. The park has a number of things to recommend it: Gaudi's arcitectual vision, a view of Barcelona without peer and the most beautiful sweet breeze. Yes we have been blogging for three days now with very little mention of the weather. Today was sunny about 17 degrees, perfect weather for adventuring. Seeing the park and the temple in the same day gave us a more complete sense of his vision. Gaudi experts we are not, but you can't miss the similarities between the supporting columns of the "Passieg de palms", the viaduct, the market space and the columns in the temples nave.
Having walked another 3km around the park it was time for cervesa...and so we walked back down the hill to the acclaimed "arty farty / bohemien " area of the Gracia. Always suspicous of the bohemia tag we found the placa de sol; a quiet little square complete with: punks with dogs, the unwashed, and those who don't work 9-5. They were relaxed, we were exhausted and we shared the common bond: a love of beer.
No rest for the wicked so we made an aborted attempt at two Guadi houses in central barcelona before we realised our feet were about the explode. We called it a day. Both of us are starting to contemplate alternative transport options: Ally's feet are blistered and she suspects stress fractures, Douglas is fearful that his size twelves will soon be stumps. We are thinking tommorrow seems like a beautiful day for a rest day.
