La Pedrera and Casa Batlló: Barcelona, Day 3

Day 3 in Barcelona: La Pedrerea and Casa Batlló

By day 3, we were tired; long travels and lots of walking in the previous days wore us out.  We spent lots of time walking the streets of the city on day 2, so we stuck with a couple of tourist sites on day 3 and called it good enough. 

Of course, La Sagrada Familia is Antoni Gaudí's most famous work, but there are plenty other marks he left on Barcelona that are worth seeing, so we set off to tour La Pedrera (AKA Casa Mila) and Casa Batlló.

Admittedly, when I saw photos of Gaudí's buildings before our visit to Barcelona, I didn't love them; his style seemed a little over-the-top for my taste.  But when touring his works and learning more about the inspiration behind his designs, I gained a true appreciation for his genius and his unique contribution to Barcelona and the world of architecture.  Nearly everything he did was inspired by nature.  He is quoted as saying, "Nature is a large book that always lies open and which you must try to read."

La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell: Barcelona, Day 1

Barcelona! It's the city everyone who had visited raved about, so when Eric had a conference there for his PhD, I jumped on board.  After telling my Mom of our plans, she jumped on board too.  And so we toured the city together with Leo in tow.

We just returned last night from our time in this lovely city.  Here is how we spent our days:

Day 1: La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell
Day 2: Gothic quarter, La Rambla, La Boqueria market, Barcelona Cathedral, and Ciutadella Park
Day 3: La Padrera and Casa Batllo
Day 4: Gracia, El Raval, and La Rambla
Day 5: Barceloneta and Labyrinth Park

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Day 1: La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell

Before Eric's conference began, we had to tick off the most famous of Barcelona's landmarks - La Sagrada Familia.  I heard many wonderful things about this masterpiece of a church, Antoni Gaudi's seminal work, but I was still unprepared for the amount of awe I felt during our visit.  My first words upon entering were "holy crap."

From the astounding trunk-like pillars to the minutest of details in the doors, everywhere you look in La Sagrada Familia, you'll fine something at which to marvel.  The structure, the light, the symbols - it's all fascinating and you can easily spend hours in wonder at this gem of a landmark.

After our tour, we grabbed lunch across the road (Eric and I tried the local favorites of paella and tapas) and then we attempted to make our way to Park Güell, another of Gaudi's famous works.  We got a bit lost along the way and by the time we arrived, tickets had sold out, so we couldn't enter the most well-known areas.  We were also in a hurry to get back, so we just strolled around the outside of the park for a few minutes.  I do wish we had more time to spend at this site, but Eric needed to attend his conference and our energy tanks were running low from a long day of travel the day before and a morning full of standing and walking.  We told ourselves we would return to Park Güell, but there was much more to see in Barcelona and we never made our way back.